WHAT  IS  RELIGION? 


HENRY  S.  PRITCHETT 


3.4.14 


^  M  mtoUgknt  £ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^J 


Presented    by   Lt.  F  L.Pa-t^on  . 

BR  121  .P73  1906 
Pritchett,  Henry  S.  1857- 
1939. 

What  is  religion?  and  other 


WHAT  IS  RELIGION? 

AND 

OTHER  STUDENT  QUESTIONS 


WHAT  IS   RELIGION? 


AND 
OTHER  STUDENT  QUEST 


€alW  to  College  Jrtubcntg 


/ 

By  HENRY  S.  PRITCHETT 

PRESIDENT    MASSACHUSETTS    INSTITUTE    OF   TECHNOLOGY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

0&i  lftftier?!&e  pre££,  Camt>ri&0e 
1906 


COPYRIGHT  I906  BY  HENRY  S.  PRITCHETT 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  February  iqob 


The  students  whose  friendship  and 
fellowship  form  the    inspi- 
ration of  a  college 
president's 
life 


PREFACE 

The  enormous  change  which  has  taken 
place  during  the  last  generation  in  the  atti- 
tude of  educated  men  toward  the  questions 
of  formal  religious  authority  and  tradition 
is  nowhere  so  evident  as  in  the  genera- 
tion now  entering  manhood.  The  college 
student  of  to-day  has  not  in  most  cases 
had  the  formal  religious  training  which  his 
father  received.  He  lacks  the  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  which  all 
well-trained  boys  of  the  last  generation 
had;  traditional  authority  means  less  to 
him  and  he  has  grown  up  in  an  intel- 
lectual atmosphere  in  which  the  scientific 
generalizations  of  the  last  fifty  years  form 
a  part  of  the  every-day  philosophy  of  life. 
He  is  not  less  religious  than  his  father 
was  at  his  age  nor  less  ready  to  think  of 
service  and  of  noble  things ;  but  there  are 


PREFACE 

fewer  influences  in  his  life  to  draw  his 
attention  to  those  everlasting  questions 
which  have  to  do  with  human  aspira- 
tions and  human  destiny.  His  life  is  less 
rich  in  the  things  which  create  a  religious 
sense.  His  danger  is  the  same  as  that 
which  confronts  the  American  in  all  busi- 
ness life :  that  the  pressure  of  the  com- 
monplace and  the  utilitarian  may  crowd 
out  the  thought  of  the  larger  and  deeper 
questions  of  philosophy,  of  religion,  and  of 
service.  However  narrow  may  have  been 
the  theology  of  the  last  century,  the  reli- 
gious training  which  went  with  it  brought 
continually  before  men's  minds  the  things 
which  are  spiritual  and  eternal.  In  the  ad- 
justment of  men's  thoughts  to  the  changes 
of  the  last  half-century  much  has  been  done 
to  impair  the  influence  of  the  religious 
leadership  which  comes  from  systematic 
teaching  and  formal  church  organization. 
No  one  can  be  brought  into  close  con- 
tact to-day  with  large  bodies  of  students 
viii 


PREFACE 

—  alert,  clear-minded,  enthusiastic  young 
men — without  a  deep  sense  of  the  lack  in 
their  lives  of  spiritual  and  religious  influ- 
ences. They  are  not  less  quick  to  respond 
to  such  influences  than  their  fathers;  but 
the  old  traditional  voices  of  authority  no 
longer  appeal  to  them,  and  in  the  hurry 
of  modern  life  the  things  which  are  tender 
and  deep  and  spiritual  seem  to  have  less 
and  less  opportunity  to  be  considered  in 
comparison  with  the  pressing  occupations 
of  the  present.  Men's  souls  are  over- 
whelmed by  the  great  current  of  the  com- 
monplace, the  material,  the  utilitarian, 
and  the  student  is  in  that  current.  If  his 
attention  and  his  interest  are  to  be  drawn 
to  higher  things  it  must  be  through  a  lead- 
ership which  faces  frankly  the  philosophy 
of  his  time  and  which  deals  with  the  facts 
of  science  and  of  religion  in  a  spirit  of  in- 
tellectual sincerity.  No  cold  and  formal 
rationalism  will  suffice,  but  a  leadership 
which  shall  be  tender,  hopeful,  spiritual, 
ix 


PREFACE 

and  fearless ;  in  a  word,  a  religious  leader- 
ship, but  one  free  of  dogma.  Whence 
such  a  leadership  is  to  come  is  one  of  the 
difficult  questions  which  to-day  confronts 
the  church  and  humanity. 

The  addresses  here  brought  together 
arose  out  of  questions  coming  to  the  front 
in  the  day  by  day  college  life.  They  were 
talks  to  different  groups  of  students  at 
various  times  and  places,  sometimes  before 
a  whole  class,  sometimes  before  smaller 
bodies.  There  are  throughout  expressions 
of  a  somewhat  personal  bearing,  sentences 
addressed  ad  hominem.  These  have  been 
left  unchanged  in  the  printed  form,  since 
they  serve  to  explain,  in  a  measure,  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  talks  were 

given. 

H.  S.  P. 

December,  1905. 


CONTENTS 

I.  What  is  Truth  ? l 

II.  What  is  Religion?   ....  29 

III.  The  Science  of  Religion     .     .  49 

IV.  The  Significance  of  Prayer    .  77 
V.  Ought  a  Religious  Man  to  join 

a  Church? 95 


I 

WHAT  IS   TRUTH? 


WHAT  IS  TRUTH? 

"  Truth  is  within  ourselves  :  it  takes  no  rise 
From  outward  things,  whate'er  you  may  believe. 
There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all 
Where  truth  abides."  Browning. 

I  welcome  these  meetings  where,  as  mem- 
bers of  a  brotherhood,  we  discuss  frankly 
some  of  the  larger  philosophical  ideas  which 
interest  the  whole  world.  And  this  not 
simply  for  the  reason  that  they  bring  me 
into  a  face-to-face  relation  with  you,  but 
also  because  these  discussions  serve  to  re- 
mind us  that  college  life  is  a  part  of  the 
life  of  the  world,  and  not  a  life  isolated 
from  it. 

To-day  I  wish  to  speak  to  you  concern- 
ing the  relations  of  citizens  to  each  other 
and  concerning  the  guiding  principle  which 
ought  to  govern  men,  in  order  that  these 
relations  may  be  the  best,  not  only  for  the 
3 


WHAT    IS   TRUTH? 

individual,  but  for  the  State  as  well.  And 
in  the  outset  I  remind  you  again  that  col- 
lege education,  if  it  be  really  an  education, 
ought  to  count  in  preparation  for  life,  and 
that  the  college  and  the  life  you  lead  in  it 
is  a  part  of  your  life  in  the  world. 

You  will  find,  both  in  college  and  in 
that  later  life  of  which  it  is  the  beginning, 
that  with  larger  opportunity  and  larger 
acquaintance  you  will  be  called  upon  to 
deal  in  greater  and  greater  measure  with 
questions  which  concern  your  social,  polit- 
ical, and  moral  relations  with  other  men. 

In  what  way,  may  I  ask,  does  your  edu- 
cation in  science  help  to  the  adjustment  of 
these  relations,  and  is  there  in  the  study  of 
science  that  which  serves  to  fix  a  guiding 
principle  of  life  and  of  conduct  ? 

I  believe  that  there  is  such  a  principle 
in  the  studies  which  you  pursue.  I  go  even 
farther  and  say  frankly  that,  if  your  scien- 
tific studies  furnish  you  no  suggestions  in 
these  matters,  if  your  education  here  does 
4 


WHAT   IS    TRUTH? 

not  connect  itself  with  any  philosophy  of 
life  and  of  conduct,  if  it  has  not  strength- 
ened your  moral  purpose  and  helped  also 
to  clear  your  conception  of  truth  and  of 
duty,  then  you  have  caught  only  the  husks 
of  science,  the  grain  has  slipped  through 
your  fingers  ;  you  have  acquired,  not  edu- 
cation, but  training. 

But  in  what  way  does  scientific  educa- 
tion minister  to  the  right  interpretation  of 
our  duties  in  the  social  order  in  which  we 
find  ourselves? 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  how  the 
society  which  we  know  has  come  to  exist, 
and  how  the  characteristics  of  the  individ- 
uals who  compose  it  have  been  formed. 
For  although,  as  Marcus  Aurelius  says, 
man  is  a  social  animal,  nevertheless  he 
became  such  only  after  a  long  and  pain- 
ful history,  and  he  brought  into  the  so- 
cial order  characteristics  developed  by 
ages  of  experience  under  different  condi- 
tions. 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

Our  knowledge  of  man  goes  back  to  a 
period  far  distant,  when  he  was  a  solitary 
animal ;  when  he  fought  day  by  day  with 
other  men  and  with  the  beasts  of  the  field 
for  life  itself.  Gradually  men  became  gre- 
garious, the  family  was  merged  into  the 
tribe  and  the  tribe  into  the  nation,  until, 
in  the  fullness  of  this  twentieth  century, 
all  civilized  mankind  are  bound  together 
by  ties  of  common  interest  and  of  com- 
mon sympathy. 

Primitive  man  lived  in  complete  free- 
dom. He  concerned  himself  with  no 
thoughts  of  others.  He  recognized  no 
responsibility  for  others.  But,  as  society 
was  slowly  established,  the  individual  ac- 
cepted certain  limitations  of  his  freedom 
for  the  sake  of  the  common  good.  He 
assumed  certain  responsibilities  which  the 
social  order  entailed.  As  time  went  on 
the  relations  became  more  complex,  and 
the  lines  of  influence  between  man  and 
man  were  enormously  multiplied.  Primi- 
6 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

tive  man  could  be  influenced  at  most  by 
the  one  or  two  fellow-savages  whom  he 
met  in  his  solitary  wandering.  The  man 
who  influences  you  or  me  most  strongly 
may  come  from  the  other  side  of  the  world. 
Modern  life  has  become  exceedingly  com- 
plex. No  man  lives  to  himself.  In  one 
way  or  another  he  may  influence  the  lives 
of  a  thousand  men. 

In  a  society  so  constituted,  made  up  of 
human  beings  who  still  retain  the  desire 
of  individual  liberty,  in  whom  the  long 
struggle  for  existence  has  implanted  in 
each  the  passion  to  do  the  best  for  himself, 
how  may  the  social  order  be  maintained 
and  individual  freedom  and  individual 
efficiency  be  preserved?  And  in  what 
way  does  a  study  of  science  minister  to 
the  maintenance  of  these  relations'? 

My  answer  to  the  question  is  this: 
The  scientific  method  of  study  is  charac- 
terized rather  by  a  distinctive  attitude  of 
mind  toward  truth  than  by  any  new  ma- 
7 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

chinery  for  collecting  facts.  The  scientific 
method  insists  that  the  student  approach  a 
problem  with  open  mind,  that  he  accept 
the  facts  as  they  really  exist,  that  he  be 
satisfied  with  no  half-way  solution,  and 
that,  having  found  the  truth,  he  follow  it 
whithersoever  it  leads. 

To  my  thinking,  the  course  which  con- 
serves at  once  the  social  order  and  the 
freedom  of  the  individual  is  to  be  found 
in  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  by  the  individ- 
ual citizen.  And  this  knowledge  of  the 
truth  in  our  social  relations  is  to  be  had  by 
use  of  the  same  method  which  we  employ 
in  seeking  for  scientific  truth.  I  believe 
that  the  value  of  the  citizen  is  measured 
by  his  ability  to  know  the  truth  and  to 
use  it,  and  that  his  freedom  is  limited  by 
this  same  ability.  I  am  convinced  that 
the  process  by  which  we  acquire  this  abil- 
ity is  the  same  whether  the  truth  we  seek 
refer  to  questions  of  science  or  to  questions 
of  morals.  Science  says  to  those  who  love 
8 


WHAT    IS    TRUTH? 

her,  Know  truth  and  follow  it.  In  so 
doing  you  serve  best  your  fellow-men  and 
yourself. 

But  I  can  understand  the  questions  which 
such  statements  immediately  raise  in  your 
minds.  In  science,  you  say,  one  can  know 
the  truth.  In  the  chemical  or  in  the  phy- 
sical laboratory  one  can  compare  theory 
with  exact  tests,  and  know  whether  his 
results  be  true  or  not ;  but  one  has  no  such 
criterion  for  judgment  in  social  and  moral 
questions.  How  is  one  to  know  the  truth 
in  such  matters  in  order  that  he  may  fol- 
low it  ? 

In  the  days  of  the  Roman  emperors  the 
procurator  of  a  certain  conquered  pro- 
vince in  Asia  Minor  found  before  him  two 
parties,  each  of  whom  claimed  to  repre- 
sent the  truth.  On  the  one  side  were  the 
religious  leaders  of  the  province,  earnest, 
narrow,  confident  that  they  were  the  di- 
vinely appointed  guardians  of  truth.  On 
the  other  side  stood  one  accused  by  them 
9 


WHAT   IS    TRUTH? 

of  impiety,  unbelief,  and  disregard  of  the 
law.  But  when  the  accused  spoke,  his  plea 
for  truth  was  so  noble  and  so  earnest  that 
it  aroused  the  attention  of  even  the  care- 
less and  reckless  procurator;  and,  as  he 
looked  in  bewilderment  from  one  to  the 
other,  he  asked,  half  helplessly,  "  What  is 
truth  ?" 

I  can  well  imagine  that  many  of  you, 
coming  as  you  do  from  distant  homes  to  a 
strange  city,  taking  up  as  you  must  new 
duties  amid  new  surroundings,  find  your- 
selves constantly  in  the  presence  of  new 
conceptions  of  duty  concerning  these  mat- 
ters of  every-day  life.  Some  of  the  things 
which  you  have  been  taught  to  look  upon 
as  wrong  you  find  done  by  those  in  whom 
you  have  confidence.  Some  of  the  things 
which  you  do  are  not  in  accord  with  the 
views  of  your  companions.  And  as  you 
observe  this  difference  of  opinion  concern- 
ing those  things  which  men  consider  right 
in  their  relations  with  other  men,  I  can  well 
10 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

imagine  you  must  now  and  then  ask  your- 
self the  question,  What  is  truth  and  where 
am  I  to  find  it  ? 

Now,  I  do  not  pretend  to  be  able  to  tell 
you  where  the  truth  is.  Perhaps  my  posi- 
tion is  somewhat  like  that  of  the  small 
Swiss  whom  I  met  on  top  of  the  Gemmi 
Pass,  and  of  whom  I  asked  the  question, 
"  Where  is  Kandersteg  ?  "  "  I  don't  know," 
said  he,  "  but  there  is  the  road  to  it."  And 
although  each  of  us  finds  truth  for  himself, 
if  he  find  it  at  all,  nevertheless  I  may  be 
able  to  point  out  some  things  which  will 
mark  the  way  to  it,  whether  you  take  one 
path  or  another. 

In  order  that  a  man  may  reach  truth, 
and  having  reached  it  make  it  effective,  at 
least  two  qualities  are  necessary.  One  is 
what  we  call  moral  sense,  earnestness  of 
purpose,  desire  to  do  that  which  is  true. 
The  other  is  intellectual  clearness,  the 
ability  to  think.  And  the  result  which  a 
man  accomplishes  is  in  large  measure  a 
ii 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

function  not  of  one  but  of  both  of  these 
qualities. 

You  have  in  mechanics  a  formula  for 
the  momentum  of  a  moving  body.  This 
momentum  depends  both  upon  the  mass 
of  the  body  and  upon  its  velocity,  and  is 
equal  to  the  product  of  the  mass  by  the 
velocity.  The  momentum  of  a  man  in 
the  social  order  in  respect  to  truth  is  re- 
presented by  a  similar  formula.  His  effi- 
ciency equals  the  moral  purpose  multiplied 
into  the  ability  to  think  straight. 

The  world's  history  is  full  of  the  story 
of  men  who  had  one  of  these  qualities 
and  who  failed  by  lack  of  the  other.  It  is 
difficult  to  say  which  has  done  the  greater 
harm  —  blind  devotion  which  would  not 
see,  or  intelligence  which  saw,  but  lacked 
purpose  and  moral  courage.  Each  has  at 
one  time  or  another  filled  the  world  with 
crime  and  suffering. 

The  scene  to  which  I  have  just  referred 
furnishes  an  illustration  of  both  these 
12 


WHAT   IS    TRUTH? 

cases.  The  Jewish  priests  who  clamored 
for  the  death  of  the  Nazarene  were  no 
doubt  in  earnest  in  their  belief  that  they 
represented  truth,  but  they  lacked  the 
clearness  of  vision  to  recognize  what  truth 
was.  Pilate,  on  the  other  hand,  educated 
as  a  Roman  knight,  a  man  who  knew  the 
world,  intellectually  alert,  saw  clearly  that 
this  man  who  stood  before  him  was  no 
criminal,  that  his  words  had  extraordinary 
depth  and  significance.  In  a  weak  way  he 
sought  to  turn  aside  the  judgment  of  the 
priests,  but  his  lack  of  moral  purpose 
made  this  effort  fruitless  in  the  face  of  the 
earnestness,  perverted  though  it  was,  of 
the  scribes  and  the  Pharisees. 

And  so,  although  no  man  can  point  out 
to  you  the  way  of  truth,  although  that 
path  is  one  which  each  one  of  you  must 
find  by  his  own  effort,  to  walk  in  this  path 
you  will  require  not  only  moral  earnest- 
ness, but  intellectual  clearness.  One  must 
not  only  feel  right,  he  must  think  straight ; 
J3 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

he  must  have   not  only  sentiment,    but 
sense. 

But  you  will  say  that  even  those  who 
unite  moral  purpose  with  intellectual  alert- 
ness, those  who  appeal  both  to  conscience 
and  to  intellect,  even  those  men  do  not 
agree  in  their  attitude  concerning  what  is 
true  in  moral  and  in  social  questions. 
These  differences  among  honest,  high- 
minded,  and  intelligent  seekers  after  truth 
are  discouraging  and  puzzling  to  the  be- 
ginner. 

We  have  had  in  the  daily  press  recently 
an  illustration  of  such  difference  of  view 
in  a  discussion  concerning  what  is  usually 
called  the  drink  question.  Now,  no  ear- 
nest and  no  clear-headed  man  can  fail  to 
recognize  the  misery  and  the  crime  which 
go  with  the  misuse  of  alcoholic  liquors  ; 
but  the  discussion  to  which  I  refer  brought 
forward  at  least  three  distinctive  opinions 
as  to  the  way  in  which  this  abuse  should 
be  dealt  with. 

14 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

One  group  of  men  believed  that  all 
social  drinking  is  wrong,  and  that  such 
drinking  should  be  prohibited  by  law,  as 
other  crimes  are  prohibited.  A  second 
group  held  that,  while  wine-drinking  is  in 
itself  harmless,  nevertheless  the  danger  of 
misuse  is  so  great  that  all  good  men  ought 
to  abstain  from  wine  and  discountenance 
its  use  by  others.  A  third  group  took  the 
ground  that  the  question  was  one  for  each 
individual  to  settle  for  himself;  that  truth 
required  the  admission  that  a  large  num- 
ber of  those  who  drink  wine  use  it  in  a 
rational  way;  that  temperance  and  truth 
lie  along  the  same  path;  that  the  real 
lesson  which  mankind  has  to  learn  is  the 
lesson  of  self-control  and  of  rational  living. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  any  of 
these  views,  all  of  which  have  been  ear- 
nestly and  conscientiously  maintained.  But 
the  point  to  which  I  wish  to  call  your 
attention  is  this.  The  question  whether 
you  accept  one  or  another  of  these  views 
*5 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

is  of  comparatively  small  importance;  but 
it  is  of  infinite  importance  to  you  that,  in 
these  and  in  similar  questions,  you  find 
your  own  conception  of  the  truth,  as  con- 
science and  mind  direct;  and,  having 
reached  a  result,  that  you  have  the  courage 
to  follow  that  conception  whithersoever  it 
leads.  It  means  little  for  you  to  accept  my 
view  of  truth  or  any  other  man's  view  of 
truth.  It  means  everything  to  you  to  deter- 
mine out  of  an  open  heart  and  an  alert 
mind  your  own  conception  of  truth,  and, 
having  done  this,  to  keep  the  courage  of 
such  conviction.  And  if  your  training  in 
science  is  to  have  any  deeper  meaning, 
if  it  is  to  connect  itself  not  only  with  the 
problem  of  making  a  living,  but  also  with 
a  real  philosophy  of  life,  then  the  habit 
of  open-mindedness  which  you  have  been 
trained  to  use  in  science,  this  scientific 
method,  as  it  is  called,  is  also  the  attitude 
of  mind  in  which  you  should  approach  all 
questions. 

16 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

There  is  a  feeling  that  too  much  truth 
is  not  a  good  thing,  at  least  for  men  be- 
tween the  ages  of  nineteen  and  twenty-four. 
And  sometimes,  when  one's  conceptions  of 
truth,  particularly  in  social  and  moral  ques- 
tions, lead  directly  across  the  conventional 
and  traditional  lines,  one  is  tempted  to  ask 
whether,  after  all,  it  is  not  better  to  fall  in 
with  the  view  of  other  men  and  travel  their 
road.  All  men  of  serious  purpose,  whether 
their  lives  be  passed  in  the  public  view  or 
not,  face  this  question  at  one  time  or  an- 
other; for  all  men  who  have  earnestness 
and  intelligence  become  leaders  in  greater 
or  less  degree.  In  such  a  moment  of  hesi- 
tation there  is  one  voice  which  speaks  down 
the  centuries — the  voice  of  one  greater 
than  Marcus  Aurelius,  greater  than  philo- 
sopher or  poet  or  priest,  whose  utterance  is 
so  clear  and  so  straightforward  that  it  brings 
courage  to  doubting  souls  and  shows  the 
way  for  timid  hearts.  That  voice  says, 
"  Know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
l7 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

you  free."  My  brothers,  there  is  no  free- 
dom worth  the  having  other  than  that  free- 
dom which  a  man  enters  into  when  he 
follows  truth  as  his  own  heart  and  his  own 
mind  enable  him  to  see  it.  Know  the  truth, 
and,  as  the  Master  says,  it  shall  make  you 
free:  free  from  discouragement  and  free 
from  fear.  For  the  real  dragons  that  de- 
stroy men's  souls  are  not  food  and  drink, 
but  the  weakness  which  allows  passion  to 
become  the  master,  not  the  slave,  of  the 
mind;  the  selfishness  which  sees  only  per- 
sonal interest  and  personal  gain  ;  the  men- 
tal lethargy  which  accepts  error  rather 
than  seek  truth ;  the  lack  of  vision  which 
fails  to  recognize  the  truth;  the  lack  of 
moral  purpose  to  follow  the  truth  when  it 
is  seen ;  and  the  fear  which  turns  aside  or 
renders  powerless  the  noblest  purpose  and 
the  finest  conception. 

There   is  another  quality  of  the  mind 
which  ought  also  to  enter  into  one's  atti- 
tude toward  truth,  and  which  is  character- 
18 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

istic  of  the  scientific  spirit  and  of  the 
scientific  method  ?  This  quality  is  toler- 
ance. For  how  strong  soever  one  feels  him- 
self to  be  in  purpose,  and  how  sure  soever 
he  may  consider  his  conception,  other  men 
just  as  sincere,  possibly  as  able,  will  discern 
truth  in  a  different  direction  and  approach 
it  by  another  path.  No  man,  no  party,  no 
sect,  and  no  religion  has  a  divine  monopoly 
either  of  truth  itself  or  of  the  ways  by  which 
truth  may  be  found.  History  is  full  of  the 
story  of  those  who  parted,  the  one  from 
the  other,  each  to  follow  truth  as  he  saw  it, 
to  find  that  their  divergent  paths  came,  in 
the  end,  to  the  same  destination. 

A  steamer  which  sails  from  San  Francisco 
for  Yokohama  sets  her  course  when  she 
leaves  the  Golden  Gate  to  follow  the  arc 
of  a  great  circle,  and  plows  her  way  sturdily, 
straight  on  through  storm  or  sunshine  to 
her  destination.  A  sailing  vessel  setting  out 
from  the  same  port  will  sail  first  on  one  tack 
and  then  on  another,  and  her  path  will  be 
19 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

determined  by  the  winds  and  currents.  Yet 
each  sails  by  the  same  compass  and  each 
comes  in  the  end  to  the  same  port. 

It  is  in  some  such  way  that  men  with 
different  training  and  different  equipment 
arrive  after  all  at  the  same  truth  by  widely 
different  paths,  and  after  different  expendi- 
ture of  time  and  labor.  The  personal  equa- 
tion enters  into  our  judgment  of  truth  as 
it  does  into  all  human  thinking.  It  is  no 
part  of  the  scientific  teaching  to  deny  to 
another  the  same  freedom  in  the  search 
for  truth  which  he  himself  claims.  The 
scientific  man  of  all  others  should  be  tol- 
erant. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  scientific 
method  excuses  a  man  for  his  failure  to  use 
all  the  means  in  his  power  to  come  at  the 
truth.  It  does  not  forgive  a  man  when  he 
seeks  in  a  devious  way  that  which  he  ought 
to  reach  by  a  direct  road.  It  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  criticise  a  man  who  embarks  on  a 
sailing  vessel  when  he   ought  to  go  by 

20 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

steamer.    And  above  all  it  boldly  opposes 
that  which  it  conceives  to  be  false. 

The  principle  that  free  expression  of 
opinion  is  conceded  to  those  who  differ  from 
the  recognized  authorities  is  a  lesson  which 
individuals  and  parties,  societies  and  na- 
tions, have  been  slow  to  learn.  This  right,  so 
far  as  social,  political,  and  religious  questions 
are  concerned,  is  limited  to-day  by  curious 
social  and  geographic  lines.  It  is  the  boast 
of  our  Anglo-Saxon  stock  that  political 
and  religious  freedom  has  found  its  fairest 
fruitage  in  Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  We 
who  live  under  a  regime  which  guarantees 
to  each  citizen  freedom  of  thought  and  of 
speech  do  well  to  recall  now  and  then  the 
mistakes  and  the  difficulties  through  which 
our  fathers  came  to  learn  this  lesson.  It  is  a 
story  full  of  the  weaknesses  and  of  the 
strength  of  humanity;  a  story  of  progress 
step  by  step,  with  many  halts  and  back- 
ward steps ;  a  story  of  cruelty  and  of  devo- 
tion, of  the  blindness  of  the  many  and  of 
21 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

the  clear  vision  of  the  few;  but  a  story 
always  of  human  progress  toward  truth. 

For  the  desire  to  compel  other  men  to 
accept  one's  own  view  of  truth  has  been 
confined  to  no  class  and  to  no  age.  It  has 
been  a  very  human  characteristic  since  the 
days  when  men  lived  in  caves  and  dressed 
in  skins.  Kings  and  priests,  having  had 
most  power  in  their  hands,  have  had  most 
opportunity  to  use  the  argument  of  force. 
Mahomet  found  that  the  sword  was  the 
surest  argument  to  convert  a  stubborn  con- 
vert, and  doubtless  he  was  thoroughly 
honest  in  his  belief.  The  priests  who  cru- 
cified Christ  felt  no  doubt  of  their  devotion 
to  truth.  A  few  centuries  later  those  who 
called  themselves  followers  of  Christ  found 
in  their  hands  the  power  to  persecute  men 
for  their  opinions,  and  they  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  use  it.  As  the  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
in  his  controversy  with  Roger  Williams, 
naively  asserted,  persecution  is  not  wrong 
in  itself.    "  It  is   wicked,"  said  he,  "  for 

22 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

falsehood  to  persecute  truth,  but  it  is  the 
sacred  duty  of  truth  to  persecute  falsehood," 
and  that  teaching  bore  strange  fruit  for 
New  England  soil. 

Boston  Common,  scarce  a  stone's  throw 
from  this  room,  lies  to-day  white  and  fair 
under  last  night's  snowfall.  As  we  look 
upon  it  our  memories  go  back  to  the  days 
of  1775,  and  to  those  later  scenes  which 
preceded  the  Civil  War.  We  think  of 
Boston  Common  as  sacred  to  liberty  and 
to  freedom  and  to  the  rights  of  man ;  and 
I  believe  there  is  no  spot  on  earth  more 
truly  dedicated  to  human  freedom.  Yet 
it  has  beheld  other  scenes  than  gatherings 
of  indignant  colonists  or  groups  of  patriot 
citizens  anxious  for  their  country's  future. 
Our  thoughts  seldom  go  back  to  that 
October  morning  in  1659,  wnen  William 
Robinson,  Marmaduke  Stevenson,  and 
Mary  Dyer  were  led  out  on  Boston  Com- 
mon, to  be  hanged  for  teaching  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Quakers.  It  is  not  easy  for  us 
23 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH  ? 

at  this  day  to  realize  that  men  and  women 
could  be  hanged  on  that  free  soil  for  reject- 
ing the  doctrine  of  original  sin  and  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  for  denying  the 
efficacy  of  baptism,  and  for  asserting  the 
absolute  right  of  private  judgment.  And 
I  remind  you  of  this  scene,  not  to  compare 
our  liberality  with  the  narrowness  of  our 
fathers,  but  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
fact  that  by  their  very  earnestness  of  pur- 
pose and  by  their  examination  and  discus- 
sion of  religious  questions  the  fathers  found 
the  path  to  truth,  though  long  and  rough  ; 
persecution  gave  way  to  tolerance,  and  a 
colony  founded  to  perpetuate  a  special 
view  of  divine  truth  became  a  State  where 
any  man  may  follow  truth  as  his  own  heart 
and  his  own  mind  direct.  And  this  ideal 
is,  after  all,  that  toward  which  great  souls 
have  labored  in  all  ages.  For  this  scientific 
method  is  no  new  invention  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  men  who  have  led 
humanity  have  always  been  those  who 
24 


WHAT    IS   TRUTH? 

went  forward  with  open  hearts  and  with 
clear  minds.  For  literature  and  science  and 
politics  and  religion  are  not  separate  and 
distinct  things,  but  only  different  parts  of 
the  same  thing ;  different  paths  by  which 
men  have  sought  after  beauty  and  truth 
and  righteousness  —  and  these  are  one. 

Therefore  let  me  hope  that  your  study 
of  science  may  mean  something  more  to 
you  than  the  facts  of  chemistry  and  of 
physics,  which  you  learn  in  the  laboratory. 
And,  if  I  may  be  remembered  by  you 
when  you  have  left  these  halls,  I  should 
choose  to  be  remembered  as  one  who  taught 
you  to  approach  the  problems  of  your 
duties  and  relations  with  men  in  the  same 
spirit  in  which  you  approach  a  problem  in 
the  laboratory  —  to  be  content  with  no  lie, 
to  rest  in  no  evasion  of  the  truth  ;  to  work 
out,  with  the  help  of  a  tender  conscience 
and  an  alert  mind,  your  own  conceptions 
of  truth,  and  having  reached  such  concep- 
tions, to  follow  them.  And  this  is  the 
25 


WHAT    IS   TRUTH? 

answer  to  my  question.  We  know  truth 
when  we  reach  it  of  our  own  effort  and 
make  it  our  truth.  The  politics  and  the 
religion  which  a  man  inherits,  without 
thinking  and  without  effort,  count  little 
toward  his  political  and  his  spiritual  de- 
velopment. Men  differ,  and  will  always 
differ,  as  to  what  truth  is  in  this  or  in  that 
matter,  but  that  man  finds  truth  who 
seeks  it ;  he  serves  truth  who  follows  it 
fearlessly ;  he  serves  his  fellow-men  who 
does  all  this  with  humility  and  with  tol- 
erance. 

In  the  Church  service  of  to-day  is  pre- 
served a  short  prayer :  "  Grant  us  in  this 
world  knowledge  of  thy  truth,  and  in  the 
world  to  come  the  life  everlasting.  "  It  has 
come  down  to  us  from  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  early  Church,  him  whom  men  called 
the  golden-tongued ;  one  who,  after  a  life 
of  devotion  and  of  courage  and  of  toler- 
ance, died  at  the  hands  of  ignorance  and 
jealousy.  The  words  of  this  prayer,  few 
26 


WHAT   IS   TRUTH? 

and  simple  as  they  are,  seem  to  me  to  ask 
all  that  a  human  soul  can  ask  —  in  this 
world  knowledge  of  God's  truth,  in  the 
world  to  come  the  life  everlasting.  The 
educated  man,  the  courageous  man,  the 
tolerant  man  has  no  other  prayer. 


II 

WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 


WHAT  IS  RELIGION? 

But  this  I  confess  unto  thee,  that  after  the  way 
which  they  call  heresy,  so  worship  I  the  God  of  my 
fathers.  —  St.  Paul. 

The  most  significant  thought  in  all  the 
universe  is  the  idea  of  God  and  of  our  re- 
lation to  Him.  And  yet  I  suppose  there 
is  no  other  fact  of  fundamental  importance 
to  which  we  bring  so  little  of  our  individ- 
ual thinking.  Most  of  us  accept  our  con- 
ceptions of  God  and  of  this  relation  exactly 
as  our  fathers  handed  them  down  to  us ; 
and  if  we  begin  to  think  for  ourselves  about 
them  our  very  first  feeling  is  one  of  unfaith- 
fulness and  of  disloyalty  to  the  religion  of 
our  fathers. 

You  have  come  from  religious  homes. 

Some  of  you  have  come  for  the  first  time 

to  share   the  complexities  of  a  city  life. 

You  are  being  trained  under  a  system  of 

31 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

thinking  whose  fundamental  condition  is 
intellectual  sincerity.  In  your  scientific 
work  you  are  taught  to  question  any  result 
and  to  prove  and  test  it.  It  is  impossible 
that  this  training  should  not  have  its  influ- 
ence upon  your  religious  ideals  if  you  think 
at  all  about  such  matters.  A  man  said  to 
me,  some  time  ago,  "  I  send  my  boy  to  a 
scientific  school  because  I  feel  that  here 
neither  his  religion  nor  his  politics  will  be 
affected."  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  such 
a  school  does  not  exist,  or,  if  it  does  exist, 
it  ought  not.  A  school  whose  intellec- 
tual current  is  so  feeble  that  it  does  not  set 
an  intelligent  man  to  thinking  about  his 
relations  to  God  and  to  his  country  is  no 
place  to  stimulate  a  man  to  right  think- 
ing in  chemistry  or  in  physics  or  in  mathe- 
matics. 

So  surely  as  you  and  I  live  you  will  go 
from  your  work  in  college  with  your  re- 
ligious conceptions  changed  by  your  life 
here ;  it  may  be  quickened  and  deepened, 
32 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

with  new  visions  of  truth  and  tenderer  real- 
ization of  your  relations  to  other  men,  it 
may  be  with  these  conceptions  repressed  or 
distorted.    As  your  study  here  is  to  give 
a  new  orientation  with  respect  to  truth,  so 
also  will  it  give  you  a  new  orientation  with 
respect  to  that  part  of  truth  which  has  to 
do  with  religion.    Now  my  concern  is  that 
in  this  inevitable  search  of  your  conceptions 
of  truth,  in  this  orientation  of  yourself  with 
respect  to  all  thinking,  you  should  not  lose 
perspective.   The  mistake  which  many  a 
student  makes  is  the  conclusion  that  when 
he  begins  to  do  his  own  thinking  he  is  no 
longer  religious,  no  longer  worshiping  the 
God  of  his  fathers.    So  closely  is  our  social 
life  interwoven  with  certain  religious  forms 
and  customs  that  to  change  the  one  seems 
like  breaking  with  all  the  rest.   And  yet  it 
is  true  to-day  that  a  vast  body,  perhaps  the 
great  majority,  of  college  men  worship  the 
God  of  their  fathers  after  the  way  which 
a   generation   ago  was  universally  called 
33 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

heresy,  and  which  is  to-day  considered  by 
many  devout  men  and  women,  some  of 
them  your  fathers  and  your  mothers,  little 
better  than  heresy.  Into  this  company  of 
scientific  men  you  have  come.  You  are  to 
learn  their  methods  of  reasoning,  which  are 
to  become  your  methods.  In  the  transfor- 
mation which  this  is  sure  to  make  in  your 
intellectual  life  there  is  not  the  slightest 
danger  to  your  religion  or  to  religious  truth. 
But  there  is  danger  that  you  may  mistake 
for  religion  something  which  is  not  religion 
at  all.  There  is  a  strong  probability  that 
you  may  think  you  no  longer  worship  the 
God  of  your  fathers  when  in  fact  you  are 
worshiping  Him  more  truthfully,  more  sin- 
cerely, more  effectively  than  ever  before. 
My  brothers,  there  is  no  fact  in  all  your 
life  which  is  laden  with  such  momentous 
consequences  to  you  as  the  fact  of  religion ; 
therefore  I  have  thought  we  could  spend 
a  half-hour  in  no  better  way  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  school  year,  and  the  beginning 
34 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

for  many  of  you  of  your  college  life,  than 
to  ask  ourselves  frankly  the  question,  What 
is  religion?  For  if  one  has  once  clearly 
understood  what  religion  is  he  has  gone 
far  on  the  path  which  takes  him  out  of  the 
region  of  doubts  and  apprehensions  and 
uncertainties  as  to  his  own  future  and  his 
relation  to  the  religion  of  his  fellow-men. 

And  what  is  Religion  as  the  man  of 
science  apprehends  it?  Stripped  of  all 
forms  of  conventional  language,  laying 
aside  the  imagery  and  the  traditions  which 
cling  about  the  very  word  itself,  religion 
presents  itself  to  the  man  trained  in  science 
as  nothing  other  than  the  divine  life  in 
the  human  soul,  a  life  which  manifests 
itself  as  all  life  manifests  itself,  by  the 
growth  which  it  brings  forth,  the  divine 
flowers  of  the  human  heart,  unselfishness, 
love,  fearlessness,  serenity,  patience,  ser- 
vice. 

I  do  not  know  that  this  brings  to  your 
mind  any  clear  notion  of  what  I  am  trying 
35 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

to  describe.  Let  us  see  if  I  can  illustrate 
what  I  mean  by  a  comparison  drawn  from 
one  of  the  most  common  of  scientific  con- 
ceptions; for  we  men  are  so  close  to  the 
relations  and  laws  of  matter  that  we  are 
constantly  forced  to  illustrate  our  spiritual 
conceptions  by  material  processes. 

To  us  men  living  on  the  earth  there 
is  only  one  source  of  energy :  the  sun. 
Darken  the  sun  and  all  motion  would  stop, 
all  life  would  disappear,  every  engine 
would  cease  to  turn,  for  the  coal  whose 
burning  supplies  the  energy  for  the  engine 
is  itself  only  stored  energy  of  the  sun. 
And  every  mill,  every  engine,  every  dy- 
namo, every  human  body,  merely  trans- 
forms solar  energy  and  turns  it  to  the  work 
of  the  world. 

Now  according  to  the  thinking  of  men 
of  science,  behind  all  nature,  behind  all 
life,  behind  all  our  visible  forms  of  energy, 
stands  an  infinite  and  eternal  energy  whom 
we  call  God.  Just  as  from  the  sun  the 
36 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

energy  of  sunlight  streams  down  upon  the 
earth  and  is  transformed  into  all  living 
things,  all  forms  of  beauty,  all  flowers,  all 
motions  and  all  the  life  of  our  planet,  so 
also  the  infinite  and  eternal  energy  radiates 
into  all  the  universe,  the  source  of  all 
energy,  whether  of  the  body,  of  the  mind, 
or  of  the  spirit.  Into  every  human  soul 
this  divine  energy  falls,  just  as  the  sun- 
light falls  upon  the  flowers,  and  every 
human  soul  becomes  a  transformer  of  that 
energy.  To  receive  this  divine  energy  into 
one's  soul  and  to  transform  it  effectively 
into  those  spiritual  forms  which  make  for 
justice,  mercy,  joy,  unselfishness,  serenity 
of  mind  and  of  life,  this  is  true  religion. 
If  in  your  heart  this  divine  transformation 
is  not  going  on  day  by  day  and  year  by 
year  you  are  not  a  religious  man,  no  mat- 
ter what  your  denominational  connections 
or  your  formal  professions  may  be.  And 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  soil  of  your 
heart  these  flowers  are  growing  it  matters 
37 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

very  little  whether  you  call  yourself  Catho- 
lic or  Protestant,  Episcopalian  or  Unita- 
rian, Methodist  or  Christian  Scientist,  or  if 
you  belong  to  no  religious  organization 
whatsoever.  It  is  the  life  in  your  own  soul 
which  determines  whether  you  are  a  reli- 
gious man,  not  the  things  that  you  believe 
or  the  name  that  you  call  yourself. 

When  the  man  of  science  who  believes 
himself  a  religious  man  expresses  this  view 
of  religion  he  finds  himself  confronted  at 
once  by  at  least  three  questions  which  are 
addressed  to  him  by  those  who  have  ap- 
proached religion  from  the  traditional 
historical  pathway,  questions  which  are 
accompanied  oftentimes  with  uneasiness 
and  apprehensions.  For  there  are  few 
human  experiences  more  unsettling  than 
those  which  an  earnest  man  is  called  upon 
to  undergo  when  he  reviews  the  grounds 
of  his  own  faith  and  that  of  his  fathers. 

The  questions  are  these :  Does  not 
such  a  conception  take  from  religion  the 
38 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

idea  of  a  personal  God  and  our  relations 
as  men  with  God  our  Father?  Does  it 
not  wipe  out  the  distinction  between  reli- 
gious and  irreligious  men,  between  good 
and  wicked  men,  for  as  recipients  of  the 
divine  energy  would  not  all  men  be  reli- 
gious men  %  And  if  this  conception  is  true 
what  is  the  practical  lesson  which  it  brings 
concerning  the  method  by  which  a  human 
soul  may  become  an  efficient  transformer 
of  the  divine  energy  and  therefore  truly 
religious'?  I  shall  try  to  answer  these 
questions  as  frankly  as  they  can  be  asked, 
and  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  you  are 
taught  to  face  the  conclusions  of  scientific 
truth  in  scientific  problems. 

That  this  conception  of  religion  and  of 
God  is  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  a  di- 
vine omnipotent  person  interfering  directly 
in  the  affairs  of  our  lives  and  of  our  world 
seems  to  me  clear.  The  whole  conception 
of  the  universe  as  the  man  of  science  sees 
it  leads  him  to  recognize  the  presence  of 
39 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

God  in  the  working  of  steadfast  and  un- 
changing laws.  So  far  as  his  observations 
go,  and  so  far  as  his  researches  into  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  throw  light  upon  the 
question,  no  instance  of  such  interference 
has  ever  been  known.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  against  his  whole  conception  of  the 
orderly  and  just  development  of  the  uni- 
verse. 

But  this  does  not  mean  that  God  has  in 
any  way  been  changed  by  the  change  in 
our  conception.  Nor  does  it  follow  that, 
because  we  no  longer  think  of  Him  as  an 
omnipotent  person,  our  relations  with  Him 
as  the  author  and  sustainer  of  the  universe 
have  been  changed.  Whether  we  think  of 
God  as  the  infinite  and  eternal  energy 
which  is  immanent  in  the  universe,  or 
whether  we  think  of  Him  as  God  our  Fa- 
ther, it  is  still  true  that  the  way  to  know 
Him  is  the  same,  and  that  He  is  not  far 
from  every  one  of  us.  The  method  by 
which  we  are  to  establish  and  freshen  our 
40 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

acquaintance,  and  even  our  communion 
with  Him,  is  a  matter  in  which  each  human 
soul  must  seek  its  own  way,  just  as  each 
human  soul  must  be  its  own  transformer  of 
the  divine  energy.  Of  what  this  commun- 
ion is  I  shall  hope  to  speak  to  you  again. 
What  I  wish  to  say  now  is  that  the  man 
who  finds  that  his  reason  leads  him  to  accept 
the  scientific  view  of  God  does  not  truly 
accept  a  spiritual  relationship  less  rich,  less 
sincere,  less  helpful  than  he  who  thinks  of 
God  as  a  Father  and  as  governing  directly 
and  arbitrarily  the  affairs  of  his  own  life 
and  of  his  own  world.  Do  not  for  one  mo- 
ment let  yourself  believe  that,  if  you  find 
the  traditional  historical  conception  of  re- 
ligion impossible,  you  have  thereby  ceased 
to  be  a  religious  man.  Millions  of  devout 
souls  have  found  Him,  some  with  joy  and 
some  with  pain,  in  the  older  way,  and  mil- 
lions more  are  to  find  Him,  it  may  be  with 
greater  joy  and  less  anguish  of  mind,  with  a 
heartier  optimism,  in  the  newer  way. 
4i 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

As  to  the  second  objection,  that  such  a 
conception  wipes  out  the  distinction  be- 
tween religious  men  and  those  who  are  not 
religious,  my  reply  is  that  this  distinction 
ought  to  be  wiped  out.  There  is  no  such 
dividing  line  amongst  men.  No  greater 
wrong  has  been  done  to  human  kind  than 
that  by  which  a  tradition  has  been  gradu- 
ally built  up,  under  which  certain  men  are 
recognized  as  religious  because  of  belong- 
ing to  an  organization,  while  others  are 
counted  as  lacking  religion  because  they 
do  not  belong  to  an  organization.  Into  all 
human  souls  the  divine  energy  is  poured 
freely  and  impartially;  all  men  are  religious 
in  greater  or  less  degree,  and  no  dividing 
line  separates  one  from  another.  We  are  all 
God's  creatures. 

As  the  radiant  light  of  the  sun  falls  upon 
our  earth  each  plant  takes  up  the  waves  of 
vibrant  energy  after  its  own  ability.  In  one 
plant  this  energy  is  transformed  into  the 
beauty  of  the  rose,  in  another  into  the  fruit- 
42 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

fulness  of  the  corn,  and  in  still  another  this 
same  energy  is  transmuted  into  the  deadly 
poison  of  the  nightshade.  In  some  such 
way  the  spiritual  energy  radiated  into  each 
human  soul  is  there  transformed  into  hu- 
man character  and  human  action.  In  one 
heart  it  is  transmuted  into  justice  and  mercy 
and  truth,  in  another  into  selfishness  and 
greed  and  lust.  Or,  rather,  in  most  human 
hearts  these  flowers  of  love  and  hate,  of  ser- 
vice and  greed,  of  mercy  and  cruelty,  grow 
side  by  side  just  as  the  rose  and  the  strych- 
nos  in  the  same  soil  are  transmuters  of  the 
same  sunlight.  There  is  no  human  heart  so 
black  but  that  some  flower  of  religion  will 
grow  there. 

I  remember  many  years  ago,  in  trying 
to  find  my  way  across  a  wild  range  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  coming  suddenly,  near 
the  summit,  upon  one  of  those  singular 
and  dangerous  quagmires  which  are  some- 
times found  in  that  region  even  at  high 
altitudes.  The  place  seemed  dry  and  safe 
43 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

enough  to  the  eye,  and  presented  the 
only  ready  egress  from  a  mass  of  fallen 
timber.  My  horse  hesitated  to  try  it,  for 
the  mountain  horses  have  good  reason  to 
dread  those  terrible  black  pits  in  which  a 
man  or  an  animal  is  sometimes  entirely 
swallowed  in  an  astonishingly  brief  time. 
On  my  urging,  however,  he  plunged  for- 
ward, and  at  the  first  step  the  dangerous 
nature  of  the  bog  was  evident.  In  an 
instant  he  had  sunk  to  the  shoulders,  and 
the  treacherous  character  of  the  place  could 
be  seen  by  the  shaking  of  the  whole  mass 
for  yards  around  like  a  huge  bowl  of  ugly 
black  jelly.  How  he  got  out  I  have  never 
quite  known,  but  three  minutes  later  we 
stood  on  firm  ground,  gazing  down  at  the 
black  muck  of  the  pit  from  which  we  had 
just  escaped.  As  I  looked  I  saw  grow- 
ing out  of  the  very  heart  of  the  ruck  a 
mountain  flower,  white,  innocent,  pure.  It 
was  a  type  of  the  human  heart.  For  there 
is  no  human  heart  so  black,  so  foul,  so  bar- 
44 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

ren,  that  in  its  soil  some  divine  flower  of 
love  or  devotion  does  not  grow.  There  is 
no  human  soul  which  is  so  poor  a  trans- 
former that  it  does  not  convert  into  love 
or  service  some  of  the  spiritual  energy 
whose  vibrations  it  receives.  As  we  are  all 
God's  creatures,  so  truly  are  we  all  religious 
men. 

One  word,  finally,  as  to  the  practical  in- 
fluence of  this  conception  upon  our  indi- 
vidual lives.  And  here  those  who  accept 
the  scientific  conception  of  the  universe 
come  back  to  join  hands  with  those  who 
are  seeking  God  in  another  way.  For 
whether  one  thinks  of  Him  according  to 
the  one  conception  or  the  other,  whether 
we  think  of  Him  as  the  infinite  and  eter- 
nal energy  showing  itself  in  all  law,  all 
order,  all  nature,  or  whether  we  think  of 
Him  as  a  Father,  the  way  to  Him  is  the 
same.  There  is  no  way  to  become  a  reli- 
gious man  in  the  truest  sense,  there  is  no 
way  to  become  efficient  transformers  of  the 
45 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

divine  energy  except  to  open  our  hearts  to 
those  forces  which  make  for  righteousness, 
just  as  the  flower  turns  to  the  sunlight. 
The  scientific  conception  contains  no  new 
formula,  it  simply  strips  away  many  useless 
and  obsolete  ones.  He  who  believes  reli- 
gion to  be  the  most  profound  interest  for 
him  will  seek  more  and  more  to  transmute 
the  divine  energy  in  which  he  shares  into 
the  things  which  make  for  spiritual  life,  and 
less  of  this  energy  into  the  things  which  are 
material.  Back  of  our  race  stands  the  long 
story  of  the  brute  ancestry,  from  which  we 
sprang,  with  its  inherited  tendency  to  self- 
ishness, to  savagery,  to  greed.  Very  slowly 
has  the  spiritual  energy,  that  which  makes 
for  righteousness,  overcome  in  the  human 
heart  the  ancestral  tendencies.  The  best  of 
human  souls  are  far  from  being  efficient 
transformers  of  the  divine  energy.  Those 
of  you  who  are  electrical  engineers  will  re- 
call how  imperfect  is  the  transformation  of 
energy  which  is  effected  in  the  electric  lamp. 
46 


WHAT   IS    RELIGION? 

We  burn  coal  to  make  steam,  and  the  en- 
ergy thus  generated  by  the  heat  is  converted 
into  mechanical  energy,  and  this  into  elec- 
trical energy,  and  this  finally  into  the  energy 
of  the  light  waves.  But  less  than  one  per 
cent,  of  the  original  mechanical  energy 
stored  in  the  coal  is  reproduced  in  the  en- 
ergy of  the  light  rays.  The  rest  has  been 
dissipated  or  used  up  in  heat  which  does 
no  work.  The  transformation  in  our  indi- 
vidual hearts  is  akin  to  this  process.  Each 
human  soul  takes  up  the  spiritual  energy 
which  comes  so  generously  to  it  and  trans- 
forms the  greater  part  of  it  into  those  things 
which  serve  self-interest,  passion,  luxury, 
the  things  of  to-day.  Only  the  remnant  is 
left  for  transmutation  into  those  things 
which  are  spiritual  and  eternal.  And  yet 
slowly,  century  by  century,  the  race  has 
risen  in  spiritual  efficiency.  And  he  who 
knows  best  the  story  of  this  rise  will  face 
with  renewed  courage  the  problem  of  his 
own  spiritual  life.  The  practical  problem 
47 


WHAT   IS   RELIGION? 

to  which  you  and  I  will  address  ourselves 
is  the  problem  of  greater  spiritual  efficiency, 
the  problem  of  transforming  more  of  the 
divine  energy  into  unselfish  things,  and  less 
into  those  things  which  are  material.  In 
proportion  as  we  do  this  we  become  reli- 
gious men.  And  in  just  such  proportion  as 
we  succeed,  in  just  such  proportion  do  we 
realize  that  we  are  coming  into  relations 
with  that  God  whom  our  fathers  worshiped, 
even  though  we  do  this  after  the  way 
which  they  called  heresy.  And  the  man 
who  has  come  to  a  realization  of  this  in  his 
own  heart  and  soul  has  already  ceased  to 
fear  that  he  has  lost  his  religion,  or  that  he 
ever  can  lose  it. 


Ill 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION 

"  I  believe  in  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
Heaven  and  Earth.' '  —  The  Apostles'  Creed. 

One  of  the  singular  facts  in  the  history  of 
mankind  is  that  the  questions  which  have 
divided  men  in  religious  matters  have  been 
in  nearly  all  cases  questions  about  the 
science  of  religion,  about  the  formulse  of 
faith,  about  the  authority  of  religious 
organization,  not  questions  about  religion 
itself.  And  even  in  our  day  it  is  contin- 
ually necessary  to  draw  attention  to  the 
difference  between  religion  and  the  efforts 
which  men  have  made  to  formulate  it. 

Some  time  ago  I  passed  through  a 
chemical  laboratory  where  a  teacher  was 
explaining  to  a  class  a  common  chemical 
reaction.  The  reaction  itself  was  going  on 
in  a  retort  on  the  table,  while  on  the  black- 
board was  written  the  conventional  for- 
5* 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

mula  which  in  the  science  of  chemistry  is 
used  to  describe  the  reaction.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  the  instructor  had  made  a  mis- 
take in  writing  the  formula;  instead  of 
C02  he  had  written  COs.  But  this  made 
not  the  slightest  difference  in  the  reaction 
which  was  going  on  in  the  flask. 

Now  the  science  of  religion,  which  we 
call  theology,  has  some  such  relation  to 
religion  itself  as  the  chemical  formula  has 
to  the  actual  chemical  reaction ;  some  such 
relation  as  the  science  of  botany  has  to  the 
living  flowers ;  some  such  relation  as  the 
science  of  astronomy  has  to  the  everlasting 
stars.  This  science  of  religion  is  impor- 
tant. It  is  of  tremendous  significance  to 
the  race  and  to  the  individual  that  we 
should  formulate  clearly  and  fairly  our 
thinking  with  respect  to  God  and  the  life 
of  man  with  Him,  but  this  science  is  of 
very  small  importance  in  comparison  with 
the  life  itself.  And  it  is  of  the  greatest 
moment  that  you  distinguish  between 
52 


THE   SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

religion,  which  is  the  divine  life  in  the 
soul  of  man,  and  theology,  which  is  merely 
the  attempt  to  formulate  our  thinking 
with  respect  to  that  life.  The  great  reli- 
gious quarrels  which  have  rent  the  world 
have  come  in  most  cases  from  the  attempt 
of  men  to  impose  upon  other  men,  not 
their  religion,  but  their  science  of  religion. 
The  student  of  science  who  concerns 
himself  with  any  thoughtful  philosophy 
of  life  will  not  only  question  himself  as 
to  the  religion  in  his  own  heart,  but  he 
will  desire  to  know  the  scientific  form  of 
thinking  with  respect  to  religion.  At  the 
beginning  of  any  serious  study  of  the 
matter  there  arises  a  fundamental  question. 
Has  the  thinking  of  scholars  so  far  crys- 
tallized as  to  give  a  fair  groundwork  of 
scientific  truth  which  expresses  the  experi- 
ence and  observation  of  men  in  regard  to 
religion1?  Is  theology  a  science,  in  other 
words,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  that 
word  in  speaking  of  other  sciences*? 
53 


THE   SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

As  one  studies  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  he  finds  that  at  various  epochs 
in  its  history  and  by  various  bodies  of  men 
efforts  have  been  made  to  reduce  to  defi- 
nite form  the  conclusions  of  men  concern- 
ing religion.  Amongst  the  most  famous 
of  these  are  the  Nicene  and  the  Apostles' 
Creeds,  both  of  the  fourth  century,  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  1563,  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith  of  1647, tne  expression  of 
the  belief  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
the  Twenty-five  Articles  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  These  are  some  of  the  formulae 
which  have  been  devised  by  men  to  ex- 
plain their  religious  thinking.  They  belong 
to  the  science  of  religion. 

The  student  of  science  is  early  brought 
to  understand  that  the  term  science  is  used 
in  widely  different  senses.  Sometimes  it  is 
qualified  by  the  word  exact,  as  indicating 
a  science  in  which  the  laws  of  the  pheno- 
mena are  so  relatively  simple  and  so  easy 
54 


THE   SCIENCE    OF    RELIGION 

of  mathematical  demonstration  that  the 
problems  of  the  science  may  be  solved 
with  certainty  and  exactness.  For  exam- 
ple, in  the  science  of  astronomy  the  laws 
and  the  phenomena  of  planetary  motion 
are  so  completely  known  that  they  may 
be  made  the  subject  of  exact  calculation, 
and  two  astronomers  with  the  same  data 
will  eventually  reach  the  same  conclusion. 
A  man's  results  may  be  for  the  moment 
unlike  those  of  his  fellow  workers,  but  in 
such  cases  differences  of  opinion  are  easily 
adjusted.  A  renewed  testing  of  observa- 
tions or  of  reasoning  process  will  show 
that  somebody  was  in  error. 

Again  we  use  the  word  science  to  indi- 
cate the  collection  and  correlation  of  facts 
with  regard  to  a  certain  set  of  related  phe- 
nomena when  knowledge  of  their  funda- 
mental laws  is  still  wanting.  Meteorology, 
for  instance,  is  hardly  more  than  a  vast 
collection  of  undigested  observations,  from 
which  a  few  generalizations  have  been 
55 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

drawn.  The  difficulty  of  exact  prediction 
here  arises  wholly  from  the  extent  and 
complexity  of  the  facts.  The  day  is  cer- 
tainly far  distant  when  meteorology  will 
become  a  science  in  the  same  sense  as 
astronomy  or  chemistry,  but  in  theory 
there  is  no  reason  why  that  day  should 
not  come. 

Finally,  the  word  science  is  used  to  cover 
certain  fields  of  study  where  the  facts  are 
not  only  complicated  but  dependent  upon 
the  individual  point  of  view.  Thus  in  the 
study  of  politics  all  the  data  are  affected 
by  the  personal  relations  and  prejudices  of 
those  who  furnish  them. 

Now  it  requires  little  consideration  to 
show  that  the  science  of  religion  is  not  an 
exact  science.  The  chemist,  whether  he  be 
English,  Italian,  or  Russian,  will  describe 
a  chemical  reaction  by  the  same  formula. 
The  theologians  of  England,  of  Italy,  and 
of  Russia  will  use  vastly  different  formulae 
in  their  respective  sciences  of  religion.  The 
56 


THE   SCIENCE   OF    RELIGION 

science  of  religion  can  scarcely  be  com- 
pared to  meteorology  (which  is  a  science 
in  the  forming),  because  in  religion  the  hu- 
man element  enters  so  powerfully.  It  is 
more  akin  to  the  group  of  sciences  which 
deal  with  the  relations  of  men  with  each 
other,  the  social  and  political  sciences. 
The  formulation  of  thought  in  religious 
science  has  gone  on,  at  least  until  a  very 
recent  day,  under  a  pressure  unknown  in 
any  other  science :  that  is,  the  pressure  of 
a  belief  on  the  part  of  nearly  every  worker 
in  the  science  that  his  own  soul's  salvation 
was  intimately  connected  with  the  formula 
which  he  devised  and  advocated.  The  dis- 
coveries and  the  formulae  of  the  great 
scientists  like  Newton  or  Pasteur  come  to 
us  in  a  form  in  which  any  follower  who 
desires  to  do  so  may  repeat  and  verify  the 
steps.  The  work  of  the  great  theologians 
like  Athanasius  and  Augustine  has  more 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  great  artists : 
visions  of  truth  as  seen  by  great  souls,  but 
57 


THE   SCIENCE   OF    RELIGION 

subjective,  not  such  as  may  be  tested  and 
proven  by  those  who  follow. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  oldest 
of  these  efforts  to  which  I  have  referred, 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  which  is  to-day  the 
formula  of  Christendom. 

The  noble  sentences  of  this  creed  have 
been  in  the  mouths  of  most  of  us  from  our 
earliest  recollections.  It  is  interwoven  with 
our  tenderest  memories.  And  yet  it  is  es- 
sentially a  scientific  rather  than  a  religious 
paper,  for  it  undertakes  to  give  in  formal 
specific  terms  the  results  of  man's  thinking 
with  respect  to  God  and  the  relations  of 
men  with  Him.  Perhaps  there  are  few  of 
us  who  are  equipped  to  examine  this  paper 
as  a  scientific  formula.  We  may  at  least 
note  that  the  fundamental  conception  con- 
tained in  the  first  words  of  the  creed  is  not 
very  far  away  from  the  scientific  conception 
of  to-day.  "  I  believe  in  God,  the  Father 
Almighty,  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth," 
is  an  expression  of  man's  experience  and 
58 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

conviction  which  is  not  so  very  different 
from  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  generalization 
that  "We  are  ever  in  the  presence  of  an 
infinite  and  eternal  energy  from  which  all 
things  proceed."  It  is  true  that  in  the  first 
expression  God  is  referred  to  as  a  Father, 
but  the  idea  of  an  Almighty  Father,  the 
Maker  of  the  Universe,  is  scarcely  less  im- 
personal than  that  of  the  infinite  source  of 
all  our  thoughts  and  energies.  This  gen- 
eralization that  God  exists  and  that  in  Him 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  is, 
I  believe,  as  truly  the  expression  of  the 
scientific  thought  of  to-day  as  it  was  of  the 
scientific  thought  of  the  fourth  century. 

Does  the  same  statement  hold  of  the 
other  articles  of  this  creed  ?  Can  the  man 
of  science  accept  them  as  well  ?  If  we 
agree  that  religion  is  a  divine  life  in  the 
human  soul,  is  that  life  dependent  upon 
the  acceptance  of  these  beliefs  *?  Does  our 
adherence  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  or 
the  remission  of  sins  or  the  resurrection  of 
59 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

the  body  freshen  that  life  and  cause  it  to 
blossom  into  the  fruits  of  love  and  mercy 
and  service  ?  In  a  word,  is  an  acceptance 
of  these  doctrines  of  the  creed  a  necessary 
or  important  part  of  religion  ? 

All  men  who  study  and  read  will  find 
these  questions  at  some  time  or  another 
lying  squarely  across  the  path  of  their  in- 
tellectual growth.  Some  go  around  them, 
some  rush  at  them  as  if  to  sweep  them 
down,  some  answer  them  with  searchings 
of  heart.  There  is  the  youth  who  means 
as  yet  to  evade  moral  issues.  He  has  some- 
where heard  that  the  doctrines  of  the  church 
have  been  entirely  disposed  of  by  some- 
body, and  he  welcomes  an  attack  on  the 
conventional  theology.  He  is  ready  to  dis- 
miss all  such  questions  as  obsolete.  There 
is  the  serious  man  —  he  may  be  a  scien- 
tific man,  or  at  least  a  scientific  man  in  the 
making  —  who  believes  that  much  of  the 
older  theology  is  out  of  date,  but  who  feels 
genuine  uneasiness  at  the  fear  that  there 
60 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

may  be  a  practical  mistake  in  the  modern 
criticism  or  a  real  loss  to  the  world  by  re- 
moving restraints  which  have  made  for 
righteousness.  And  there  is  the  man  who 
accepts  more  or  less  firmly  the  formula  of 
the  creed,  but  who  wishes  to  be  fair.  He 
deplores  modern  unbelief,  but  recognizes 
it  as  an  apparently  necessary  danger  of  any 
sort  of  higher  education,  and  asks  only 
what  the  higher  education  has  to  offer  in 
return  for  the  old  faith.  To  him  the  scien- 
tific conception  of  God  as  the  infinite  and 
eternal  energy  seems  vague  and  shadowy 
in  comparison  with  his  thought  of  God  as 
a  Heavenly  Father.  The  statement  that 
religion  is  to  be  lived  by  opening  our 
hearts  to  the  divine  energy  seems  to  him  a 
very  indistinct  and  hesitating  voice  along- 
side the  words,  "  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church,  the  forgiveness  of  sins, 
and  the  life  everlasting."  Are  we  to  throw 
away,  he  asks,  these  definite  beliefs  of  two 
thousand  years  and  receive  in  return  only 
61 


THE    SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

the  vague  conception  of  a  power  behind 
nature  and  a  still  more  indistinct  direction 
of  the  way  by  which  we  are  to  find  Him  ? 
To  these  questionings  and  anxieties  the 
scientific  seeker  for  truth  can  perhaps  give 
no  answer  which  will  be  satisfactory  to  all. 
The  best  he  can  do  is  to  make  clear  his 
own  ground  and  to  do  this  with  full  respect 
for  the  faith  of  others  and  due  regard  to  his 
own  limitations.  He  must  recognize,  too, 
that  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  creed 
is  essentially  a  scientific  paper  prepared  by 
experts  after  long  discussions  and  many 
compromises,  its  significance  as  a  scientific 
formula  was  soon  overshadowed  by  the 
influence  which  it  came  to  have  over  the 
hearts  of  men.  The  place  which  it  fills  to- 
day has  little  to  do  with  its  scientific  origin. 
As  we  repeat  the  words  it  is  not  of  their 
scientific  value  or  even  of  their  truthfulness 
that  we  concern  ourselves.  Not  one  in  a 
thousand  of  us  has  spent  an  hour's  thought 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  or  the  remis- 
62 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

sion  of  sins  or  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 
The  words  are  precious  to  us  from  their 
associations  with  solemn  and  tender  scenes 
of  our  lives,  from  their  suggestions  of  a 
Saviour  of  the  world  and  the  hope  and  com- 
fort of  a  better  life.  Our  hearts  turn  gladly 
from  the  somewhat  cold  scientific  words 
of  the  first  sentence  to  the  intensely  human 
and  sympathetic  figure  of  Christ,  and  we 
realize  that  it  is  through  our  emotions  that 
this  venerated  creed  touches  us.  It  is  this 
precious  freightage  of  the  traditions,  the 
hopes,  the  longings  of  twenty  centuries 
of  which  one  must  think  if  he  is  to  sweep 
away  the  dogmas  of  the  church  as  non- 
essentials. It  is  this  consideration  which 
makes  the  answers  to  the  questions  I  have 
proposed  equally  difficult  for  the  religious 
man  who  wishes  to  be  fair-minded,  whether 
he  adhere  to  the  old  faith  or  to  the  new, 
whether  his  science  be  theology  or  physics. 
Men's  intellectual  differences  generally 
come,  not  from  differences  in  intellectual 
63 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

capacity,  but  from  difference  in  the  point 
of  view ;  and  nothing  is  more  difficult  for 
any  of  us  than  to  get  a  fair  perspective  from 
another  man's  viewpoint.  The  more  sure 
one  is  of  his  own  view  of  truth  the  less 
likely  is  he  to  estimate  fairly  the  attempt 
of  another  who  is  judging  the  same  set  of 
facts  from  another  point  of  observation. 
And  perhaps  nowhere  have  good  and  true 
men  shown  such  disregard  of  other  men's 
intellectual  and  spiritual  rights  (if  one  may 
use  that  term)  as  in  their  discussions  con- 
cerning the  formulae  and  philosophy  of 
religion ;  for  these  discussions  have  rarely 
been  held  regarding  religion  itself. 

It  is  generally  only  by  some  chance  ex- 
pression that  we  are  brought  to  realize  how 
completely  we  neglect  at  times  the  stand- 
point of  our  friend  in  trying  to  impress 
upon  him  our  own  view  of  truth.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  impression  made  upon  me 
by  the  words  of  a  very  intelligent  oriental 
in  one  of  the  East  India  islands,  himself  a 
64 


THE   SCIENCE  OF   RELIGION 

teacher,  concerning  an  exposition  of  reli- 
gion which  he  had  just  heard  from  a  Euro- 
pean. Speaking  without  bitterness  but 
with  feeling  he  said,  "  You  gentlemen  from 
Europe  and  America  invite  us  to  accept 
your  religion,  but  you  preface  your  invi- 
tation with  the  extraordinary  condition 
that  we  must  first  forget  the  long  religious 
history  of  our  own  race  and  the  virtues 
which  we  as  a  people  have  cultivated  in 
thousands  of  years  of  slow  progress."  "  The 
position  which  you  assume  toward  us," 
said  he,  "  is  very  like  that  taken  by  an  aged 
student  of  mine,  for  with  us  it  is  not  un- 
common to  find  students  who  have  passed 
their  threescore  and  ten.  This  man  had 
labored  for  many  years  over  a  theory  of  the 
planetary  motions,  and  had  finally  brought 
his  theory,  as  he  thought,  to  perfection,  and 
felt  it  a  duty  to  give  it  to  the  world.  To 
him  it  stood  for  truth.  He  began  his  ex- 
planation by  this  preliminary  statement: 
'Before  you  can  understand  my  theory 
65 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

you  must  divest  yourself  of  all  the  con- 
ceptions which  your  mathematical  train- 
ing has  given  you.'  '  Alas/  said  I, '  what 
you  ask  is  impossible,  and  beside,  if  I 
should  do  this,  how  can  I  test  the  correct- 
ness of  your  theory  %  '  Would  it  not  be 
possible  for  you  Europeans  to  invite  us 
into  your  religious  fellowship  without  ask- 
ing us  to  throw  away  all  that  we  have 
learned  from  centuries  of  slow  tuition  under 
the  same  God  who  rules  in  Europe  and 
America  ?  "  I  never  before  realized  what 
it  implied  when  one  asks  a  man  to  aban- 
don the  religion  of  his  race  to  accept  that 
of  another.  The  sincere  believer  in  the 
formulae  of  the  older  Christian  faith  doubt- 
less feels  some  such  protest  rising  in  his 
heart,  even  if  unexpressed,  when  he  is 
asked  to  think  of  religion  as  a  simple  life 
of  the  soul,  independent  of  all  formulae  and 
all  creeds  and  all  organizations.  The  two 
points  of  view  are  widely  different.  Let  us 
try  briefly  to  state  them. 
66 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

Both  the  older  science  of  theology  and 
the  modern  science  of  evolution  recognize 
back  of  nature  a  governing  and  controlling 
power  which  makes  for  righteousness  and 
which  we  call  God ;  but  the  former  repre- 
sented Him  to  men  as  a  divine  person 
ruling  the  universe  by  arbitrary  acts  and 
changing  the  circumstances  of  our  lives  at 
the  request  or  need  of  his  children,  while 
the  latter  discerns  in  Him  the  sustainer 
of  the  universe  and  the  giver  of  all  our 
life,  but  ever  working  through  steadfast 
and  unchangeable  laws. 

The  philosophy  of  the  old  theology 
looked  upon  man  as  a  creature  fallen  from 
a  high  estate,  morally  diseased  and  only  to 
be  restored  to  companionship  with  God  by 
the  fulfillment  of  a  certain  plan  devised  for 
that  purpose.  The  provisions  of  this  plan 
are  contained  in  the  creeds :  the  sacrifice 
of  the  Saviour,  his  resurrection,  his  judg- 
ment, the  Church,  the  remission  of  sins, 
the  life  hereafter.  It  is  true  also  that  the 
67 


THE   SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

science  of  theology  recognized  what  was 
called  natural  religion,  but  only  in  a  second- 
ary sense. 

The  philosophy  of  modern  science  con- 
templates the  race  from  an  entirely  differ- 
ent point  of  view.  It  looks  upon  man  as 
occupying  a  place  in  nature  to  which  he 
has  come  by  many  ages  of  normal  devel- 
opment. Behind  him  lie  a  brute  ancestry, 
ages  of  war  for  existence,  centuries  of  slow 
progress  which  have  left  their  imprint  in 
his  physical  and  moral  constitution;  but 
his  face  is  turned  toward  the  light,  and  his 
progress  is  upward. 

"  Man  as  yet  is  being  made,  and  ere  the  crowning  Age 

of  ages, 
Shall    not    seon  after   aeon  pass  and    touch  him   into 

shape  ?" 

With  this  effort  to  make  clear  the  differ- 
ences in  the  points  of  view,  I  think  the 
attitude  of  the  general  body  of  scientific 
men  toward  the  formulae  of  the  creed  may 
be  expressed  in  some  such  words  as  these, 
68 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

so  far  as  one  of  limited  scientific  experience 
may  hope  to  voice  them. 

First  of  all,  the  man  of  science  is  en- 
gaged in  no  propaganda  to  uproot  the 
faith  or  the  convictions  of  other  men, 
whether  young  or  old.  Looking  upon 
religion  as  a  life  in  the  individual  soul,  he 
is  happy  to  see  that  life  made  fruitful  by 
any  means  which  the  individual  finds  to 
nourish  it.-  For  himself  he  must  regard 
that  life  as  a  very  different  thing  from  the 
formulae  which  are  intended  to  define  it; 
and,  if  he  examine  these  formulae  at  all,  he 
must  apply  to  them  the  same  tests  which 
he  would  apply  in  any  other  study,  and 
he  must  be  satisfied  to  go  only  so  fast 
and  so  far  as  he  can  be  sure  of  the  truth. 
Though  science  has  no  specifics  for  man's 
spiritual  salvation,  it  looks  with  perfect 
faith  into  the  future,  in  the  belief  that  the 
progress  of  the  race  is  sure.  It  does  not 
undertake  to  answer  the  questions  of  the 
future  which  are  beyond  our  ken,  but  it 
69 


THE    SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

points  all  men  joyfully  toward  a  life  with 
God  as  the  normal  life. 

It  is  perhaps  here  that  the  religious  man 
of  science  parts  company  with  the  religious 
man  of  creed,  —  in  the  different  estimate 
which  he  puts  upon  truth  for  its  own  sake. 
The  result  which  he  is  able  to  accept  may 
seem  less  definite,  perhaps  less  comforting 
to  the  hope,  but  his  training  leads  him  to 
believe  that  nothing  is  worth  while  but  the 
truth,  and  that  its  pursuit  and  possession 
form  in  the  end  their  own  exceeding  great 
reward.  He  has  a  faith  quite  as  sincere, 
quite  as  earnest,  as  any  other  believer, 
that  along  this  road  of  truth-seeking,  of 
open-mindedness,  of  modest  study,  lie  that 
sincerity,  that  discipline,  that  clear  vision 
which  in  the  end  lead  to  justice  and  mercy 
and  unselfishness ;  which  lead,  in  a  word, 
to  the  growth  in  the  soul  of  that  life  which 
is  religion.  It  is  a  constructive,  not  a  de- 
structive faith.  To  such  a  man  there  is  in- 
finite comfort  and  steadying  power  in  the 
70 


THE    SCIENCE    OF   RELIGION 

thought  that  the  new  faith,  if  it  does  not 
see  so  far  as  the  old,  at  least  looks  up  to 
God  with  clear  eyes.  Unable  to  read  the 
problems  of  the  future  fully,  it  undertakes 
to  give  no  doubtful  solution,  but  trusts  that 
solution  without  fear  to  the  power  which 
has  brought  us  up  out  of  the  baser  life  and 
set  our  faces  toward  the  light.  The  man 
of  science  is  profoundly  hopeful.  He  be- 
lieves in  God,  he  believes  also  in  man  and 
his  destiny.  His  faith  is  that  voiced  by 
Tennyson  in  the  lines :  — 

"I  stretch  faint  hands  of  faith  and  hope 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  Lord  of  All, 
And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope." 

One  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  the 
very  definiteness  of  the  formulae  of  the 
older  creeds  of  Christendom  appeals  to 
something  universal  in  human  nature.  A 
clear  statement  will  nearly  always  pass  for 
a  true  one.  Men  instinctively  reach  out 
for  specifics,  and  nowhere  so  eagerly  as 
71 


THE   SCIENCE    OF    RELIGION 

in  those  things  which  pertain  to  health, 
whether  of  the  body  or  of  the  soul.  Yet 
there  are  few  specifics  in  all  nature,  either 
for  bodily  or  spiritual  health.  The  ordi- 
nary human  being,  to  live  in  health,  must 
depend  not  upon  specific  medicines  but 
upon  leading  a  normal  life  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  nature.  He  must  open 
his  lungs  to  the  fresh  air,  take  into  his 
stomach  wholesome  food,  and  lead  a  ra- 
tional life.  Health  follows  as  a  result  of 
the  laws  of  physical  being  with  which  the 
individual  has  put  himself  in  accord ;  and 
yet  the  advice  to  lead  wholesome  lives,  to 
eat  simple  food,  to  breathe  fresh  air,  seems 
so  indefinite  that  we  generally  fail  to  dis- 
cipline ourselves  to  undertake  these  things. 
In  the  same  way  the  invitation  to  spiritual 
health,  to  open  one's  heart  to  the  things 
that  make  for  righteousness,  for  unselfish- 
ness, for  service,  seems  very  indefinite.  It 
is  far  easier  and  simpler  to  discipline  our 
minds  to  the  defense  or  even  to  the  ac- 
72 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    RELIGION 

ceptance  of  some  formula  or  of  some 
specific  dogma. 

In  the  case  of  both  the  physical  and  the 
spiritual  health-seeking  it  is  a  life  to 
which  the  man  is  called:  a  day  by  day 
submission  of  his  body  and  of  his  soul  to 
the  laws  of  the  universe  in  which  he  finds 
himself,  not  a  spasmodic,  isolated  effort. 
It  is  at  this  point  that  we  find  it  hard  to 
overcome  the  inertia  of  society,  the  inbred 
selfishness  of  our  race,  the  pleasure  of  the 
hour.  And  it  is  always  so  much  easier  to 
point  the  way  to  such  a  life  than  to  lead 
it ;  so  much  easier  to  try  a  specific  for  dis- 
ease than  to  follow  the  laws  of  health ;  so 
much  pleasanter  to  our  self-complacency 
to  talk  about  the  religious  life  than  to 
live  it. 

After  all,  the  practical  problem  is  the 
same  to  every  man,  whatever  his  philo- 
sophy of  life.  The  difficulties  of  natural 
depravity  are  exactly  the  same  as  those  of 
the  brute  inheritance.  The  chemical  reac- 
73 


THE   SCIENCE   OF   RELIGION 

tion  in  the  retort  is  the  same,  whichever 
formula  is  used.  Whether  one  accept  the 
one  hypothesis  or  the  other,  the  problem 
of  the  individual  man  is  to  adjust  himself 
to  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  to  lay  hold 
of  the  spiritual  energy  which  is  poured 
out  upon  him,  to  find  his  own  way  to 
God  and  to  a  life  with  Him. 

And  now  in  closing  let  me  say  one 
word  in  the  direction  in  which  I  began.  I 
have  spoken  to  you  in  regard  to  the  science 
of  religion,  not  because  I  thought  you 
were  interested  in  theology,  but  because  I 
know  from  daily  experience  that  you  are 
constantly  mistaking  theology  for  religion, 
constantly  confusing  the  science  of  reli- 
gion with  the  divine  life  in  the  human 
soul,  which  is  religion.  It  is  as  if  a  man 
mistook  the  chemical  formula  for  the 
actual  chemical  reaction,  the  science  of 
botany  for  the  flowers,  the  science  of  as- 
tronomy for  the  stars.  I  have  spoken  in 
this  way,  not  because  I  do  not  think  a 
74 


THE   SCIENCE    OF    RELIGION 

science  of  religion  is  important ;  I  believe 
it  is  profoundly  important,  if  it  be  a  true 
science;  but  because  I  think  the  science 
is  infinitely  less  important  than  the  thing 
itself.  Now  to  know  God  in  your  own 
soul  and  to  develop  from  that  knowledge 
the  fruits  of  the  spirit  is  religion.  If  in 
doing  this  you  find  comfort  and  strength 
and  joy  in  a  belief  in  the  formulse  of  any 
body  of  Christians,  in  God's  name  use 
these  formulse  and  these  beliefs  to  the  ut- 
most. But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  find 
yourself  stopped  by  the  creeds  or  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  body  of  religious  men  with 
whom  you  are  associated,  do  not  for  one 
moment  allow  yourself  to  think  that  you 
have  lost  your  religion.  These  things  be- 
long not  to  religion,  but  to  the  science  of 
religion,  a  science  which  was  framed  in 
the  early  history  of  civilization  and  which 
has  never  yet  caught  up  with  other  sciences. 
The  one  important  thing  for  any  human 
being  is  to  develop  in  his  own  soul, 
75 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    RELIGION 

heartily,  joyfully,  sincerely,  the  life  which 
blossoms  into  forgetfulness  of  self  and  ser- 
vice of  men,  in  courage  and  mercy  and 
patience  and  serenity  of  mind.  For  these 
are  the  fruits  of  true  religion.  And  when 
we  strive  to  do  this  we  approximate  ever 
closer  to  the  life  of  him  our  elder  brother, 
Jesus  Christ. 


76 


IV 

THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF 
PRAYER 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF 
PRAYER 

'«  Was  die  innere  Stimme  spricht, 

Das  taiischt  die  hoffende  Seele  nicht." 

Schiller. 

From  the  earliest  history  of  our  race  men 
have  prayed.  Our  oldest  records  concern 
themselves  with  these  efforts  of  men  to 
come  in  touch  consciously  with  God.  Dur- 
ing this  last  generation,  when  our  concep- 
tions of  the  order  and  progress  of  the 
universe  have  undergone  great  changes, 
men  have  still  prayed.  In  these  prayers, 
reaching  from  the  earliest  human  history 
until  to-day,  may  be  traced  the  gradual  un- 
folding of  our  conception  of  God  and  our 
relation  to  Him.  The  nature  of  a  man's 
prayer  will  inevitably  depend  on  his  con- 
ception of  God.  The  scientifically  trained 
79 


THE   SIG*       C     NCI    OF   TRAVER 

mind  of  the  twentieth  century,  seeing 

Icmoesaf  i 

slow  and  gradual  pr;  giesskffl  i  c  c  ordance 
with  unchangeable  laws,  and  looking  a  y  : . 

J  as  an  infinite  and  eternal  power  ban  k 
of  all  nature  and  all  law,  will  have  a  different 
conception  of  what  prayer  means  from  that 
. :  :ne  man  whose  spiritual  training  anc  - 
.  -  ssion  lead  him  to  think  01  G  c  A  is  i  di- 
vine .  -  •  s  -  d  dealing  as  an  omnipotent  rather 
with  his  children  and  influenced  by  their 
requests.  In  view  of  this  changed  concep- 
tion many  devout  souls  ask  anxiously.  Is 
not  this  scientific  conception  of  God  and 
of  nature  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  per- 
sonal relation  with  Him "?  Granting  the 
new  form  of  faith,  may  a  man  still  pray, 
and,  if  so,  in  what  sense  ? 

Like  other  fundamental  questions  of  hu- 
man experience,  this  one  reaches  back  to 
many  long-distant  causes  and  influences. 
To  answer  it  one  must  first  know  what 
prayer  is,  and  what  it  has  meant  to  men  of 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   PRAYER 

older  time  as  well  as  to  those  of  our  own 
day. 

In  no  way  have  men  shown  their  ideas 
of  our  relation  with  the  Infinite  so  clearly 
as  in  their  prayers.  Marcus  Aurelius  An- 
toninus, a  Roman  Emperor  and  a  Stoic 
philosopher,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of 
human  souls,  gives  in  these  words  his  con- 
ception of  prayer:  A  prayer  of  the  Athe- 
nians —  "  Rain,  rain,  O  dear  Zeus,  down 
on  the  plowed  fields  of  the  Athenians  and 
on  the  plains."  "  In  truth,"  writes  Aure- 
lius, "  we  ought  not  to  pray  at  all,  or  we 
ought  to  pray  in  this  simple  and  noble 
fashion." 

A  prayer  of  Jesus :  "  Father,  all  things 
are  possible  unto  thee ;  take  away  this  cup 
from  me :  nevertheless,  not  what  I  will,  but 
what  thou  wilt." 

A  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom,  one  of 

the  Greek  fathers  of  the  fourth  century : 

"  Grant  us  in  this  world  knowledge  of  thy 

truth,  in  the  world  to  come  life  everlasting." 

81 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   PRAYER 

These  three  prayers  indicate  in  the  form 
and  character  of  their  petitions  three  great 
steps  which  humanity  has  taken  in  its  ef- 
fort to  know  and  to  come  in  touch  with  God. 
The  first  reflects  the  life  and  the  intellec- 
tual attitude  of  the  highest  philosophy  of 
the  ancient  civilization,  an  attitude  which 
was  calculated  to  show  not  so  much  the 
goodness  of  the  gods  as  the  inherent  dig- 
nity of  man.  The  Stoic  philosopher,  noble, 
dignified,  just,  appealed  to  the  gods  as 
rulers  of  the  world  for  that  which  he  felt  to 
be  justly  due  to  men,  but  he  endured  the 
things  the  gods  sent  with  equal  calmness, 
whether  they  were  good  or  ill.  Such  a 
prayer  argued  a  relation  with  the  gods  at 
once  personal  and  impersonal :  personal  in 
the  sense  of  the  direct  action  of  the  gods 
upon  human  affairs,  impersonal  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  definite  conviction  of  their 
justice  and  mercy.  Such  a  prayer  bespoke 
a  soul  which  stood  fearlessly  before  God, 
conscious  of  its  own  rectitude  and  willing 
82 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

to  submit  to  the  decrees  of  the  divine 
power,  but  neither  asking  nor  expecting 
the  support  and  sustenance  of  that  faith 
which  looks  upon  God  as  a  kindly  and 
loving  father. 

That  which  is  absent  in  the  prayer  of  the 
Stoic  is  found,  as  it  is  found  nowhere  else, 
in  the  prayers  of  Jesus.  Here  speaks  a  soul 
conscious  of  a  life  day  by  day  and  hour  by 
hour  with  a  Heavenly  Father.  Every  word 
and  act  and  hope  is  permeated  by  that  con- 
scious relationship,  and  he  prays  to  this 
Father  as  one  who  cannot  only  sustain  and 
help,  but  also  take  upon  himself  the  ad- 
justment of  every  human  circumstance 
which  the  complexities  of  life  present.  A 
loving,  all-powerful  Heavenly  Father,  not 
only  immanent  in  the  universe  and  in  the 
lives  and  acts  of  men,  but  ready  also  at  the 
prayer  of  His  children  to  change  these  laws 
and  processes  to  compass  their  well-being : 
these  are  the  relations  and  the  conceptions 
called  up  by  the  prayer  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

83 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

The  words  of  the  Greek  father  suggest 
a  still  different  conception  and  a  different 
relation.  He  lived  in  a  day  when  the 
Christian  faith  had  already  in  great  mea- 
sure supplanted  Greek  and  Roman  philo- 
sophy in  the  hearts  of  men.  A  Roman 
emperor  had  become  a  Christian  and  the 
feeble  organization  which  had  started  amid 
such  humble  surroundings  three  hundred 
years  before  had  begun  to  lay  its  hands  on 
the  government  of  Europe.  But  in  the 
very  days  of  power  doubts  had  come.  Men 
had  begun  to  differ  in  their  interpretations 
of  the  complicated  doctrine  of  salvation 
which  had  been  built  up  under  the  earlier 
fathers.  To  be  sure,  the  great  Council  of 
Nice  had  been  called  together  in  order  to 
quiet  these  differences  and  to  furnish  a 
definite  creed  of  faith  which  should  be  uni- 
form and  consistent  for  all  Christians.  But 
this  creed  had  been  reached  only  after  the 
most  bitter  contest,  and  its  very  language 
reflected  the  stress  under  which  it  was 
84 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

framed.  Learned  and  devout  men  held 
widely  divergent  views  concerning  impor- 
tant matters  of  belief.  In  a  word,  the  dif- 
ferences which  present  themselves  when 
different  human  intellects  with  varying  abil- 
ities and  varying  prejudices  study  obscure 
problems  were  pressing  hard  upon  the 
souls  of  men. 

A  condition  of  unrest,  of  questioning, 
existed  approximating  that  of  to-day  ;  a 
condition  which  was  not  to  recur  for  many 
centuries,  for  intellectual  differences  were 
quickly  crushed  into  uniformity  under  the 
iron  hand  of  authority.  Into  the  prayer  of 
that  day  comes  a  questioning  note.  Not 
earthly  help  or  the  intervention  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  is  asked,  but  knowledge 
of  God's  truth.  It  is  in  some  such  way  as 
this  that  the  scientific  mind  prays  to-day : 
it  asks  in  this  world  knowledge  of  God's 
truth,  resting  sure  that  with  this  knowledge 
all  other  problems  are  resolved. 

Does  this  conception  of  God  as  the  in- 

85 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 
v 
finite  power  in  the  universe,  immanent  in 

all  life  and  all  nature  but  working  through 
law,  not  under  the  action  of  human-like 
motives  and  purposes,  make  such  a  prayer 
less  possible,  less  helpful,  less  needful  ? 

These  three  prayers  and  all  others  which 
are  uttered  in  the  privacy  of  a  man's  own 
soul  are  efforts  to  come  into  conscious  re- 
lations with  God.  He  who  really  prays  has 
crossed  the  threshold  of  spiritual  conscious- 
ness and  come  into  a  higher  relation  with 
the  Infinite.  For,  whether  we  look  up  to 
God  as  a  person  or  whether  we  regard  Him 
as  the  infinite  source  of  life  working  through 
everlasting  laws,  our  touch  with  Him  must 
come  through  our  own  consciousness  :  and 
it  is  through  this  higher  spiritual  conscious- 
ness that  we  reach  Him.  The  great  souls 
of  earth  have  all  come  to  great  spiritual 
truth  through  entering  into  this  higher  con- 
sciousness of  the  soul.  Socrates  speaks  of 
it  as  the  "  dsemon  "  (a  spirit  within  one) ; 
Jesus  as  "  the  kingdom  within  you  ; "  St. 
86 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

Paul  as  the  "  inner  man."  In  a  word, 
whether  we  have  the  one  or  the  other 
philosophy  about  God,  whether  we  accept 
the  one  view  or  the  other  of  His  relation  to 
us,  we  only  enter  into  conscious  relations 
with  Him  when  we  cross  the  threshold  of 
our  own  spiritual  consciousness.  Men  may 
be  religious,  they  may  be  happy,  they  may 
be  useful,  and  yet  never  rise  into  this  spirit- 
ual consciousness,  never  pray  in  this  sense. 
Let  us  try  to  illustrate.  For  a  long  time 
the  world  looked  upon  light  as  a  substance 
simple  in  its  nature.  We  know  now  that 
light  is  composite,  and  that  it  is  the  result 
of  vibrations  from  the  source  of  all  our  phy- 
sical energy,  the  sun.  These  vibrations  are 
brought  to  us  in  the  form  of  waves  in  the 
ether  which  fills  all  space,  and  their  effect 
on  our  eyes  will  vary  with  the  length  of  the 
waves  and  the  consequent  rapidity  with 
which  they  reach  our  eyes.  When  the 
ether  waves  are  fifty  thousand  to  the  inch 
they  make  upon  our  eyes  the  impression 

87 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE   OF   PRAYER 

of  violet  light;  when  they  run  about  thirty 
thousand  to  the  inch  they  produce  the  im- 
pression of  red  light ;  and  all  our  sensa- 
tions of  color  lie  between  these  two  limits. 
Waves  slower  than  the  red  and  faster  than 
the  violet  produce  no  effect  on  the  eye. 
And  yet  we  know  that  there  are  vibrations 
which  lie  below  the  red  and  above  the  vio- 
let which,  falling  upon  the  eye,  give  no 
vision,  and  are  yet  full  of  energy.  Some 
such  analogy  holds  in  our  minds.  Our  con- 
scious every-day  relations  lie  within  a  lim- 
ited range.  That  which  we  see  and  recog- 
nize with  our  senses  and  which  forms  the 
bulk  of  our  every-day  experiences  does  not 
include  all  the  spiritual  energy  of  which 
the  soul  is  capable.  Below  the  threshold 
of  our  ordinary  consciousness,  as  we  well 
know,  lies  a  consciousness  of  another  sort, 
of  which  we  know  little,  such  as  the  con- 
sciousness of  sleep,  for  example.  Just  so, 
also,  above  the  ordinary  every-day  con- 
sciousness lies  a  superlintral  region  of  the 
88 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

human  soul,  like  the  ultra-violet  part  of 
the  color  spectrum.  Into  this  higher  spir- 
itual consciousness  we  rise  only  by  that 
supreme  effort  of  the  soul  by  which  a  man 
may  come  to  know  his  own  soul's  better 
self  and  the  best  to  which  that  soul  may 
aspire.  In  doing  this  he  draws  near  to  the 
author  and  ruler  of  the  universe,  whether 
his  philosophy  of  life  teaches  him  to  look 
upon  that  author  and  ruler  in  the  personal 
or  the  impersonal  way.  Whatever  our  phi- 
losophy of  the  universe,  our  way  of  know- 
ing God  is  the  same  :  by  the  development 
of  a  spiritual  consciousness,  by  so  training 
our  own  hearts  and  minds  as  to  raise  up 
within  us  a  new  man  ;  by  fearlessly  facing 
our  own  souls  and  so  knowing  ourselves 
as  to  grow  into  that  spiritual  power  which 
may  bring  us  into  contact  with  Him.  To 
do  this  is  to  pray  in  the  highest  sense. 

This  conception  of  the  inner  man,  or, 
as  Schiller  has  called  it,  the  inner  voice,  is 
almost  as  old  as  our  thinking.    Socrates, 

89 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   PRAYER 

Jesus,  St.  Paul,  Marcus  Aurelius,  all  great 
souls  who  have  thought  deeply  on  the 
problems  of  religious  development  have 
come  back  to  it  again  and  again.  It  con- 
tains the  essence  of  any  religion  which  is 
to  deal  with  the  mind,  the  heart,  and  the 
moral  life.  Does  the  scientific  spirit  tend 
to  develop  this  deeper  consciousness,  this 
inner  voice'? 

I  believe  profoundly  that  it  does.  More 
than  this,  I  believe  that,  amid  the  rush  of 
our  modern  life,  amid  the  distractions  of 
incessant  occupation,  in  the  confusion 
of  men's  minds  concerning  right  and 
wrong,  the  spirit  of  scientific  truth-seeking 
is  the  very  note  which  the  inner  voice 
most  needs  to  sound,  and  which  we  men 
of  to-day  are  prone  to  neglect. 

We  have  become  accustomed  in  these 
last  years  to  a  measure  of  personal  and 
official  dishonesty  which  is  utterly  de- 
moralizing. Well-meaning  men  go  wrong 
morally,  in  their  intellectual  judgments,  in 
90 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    PRAYER 

practical  matters,  and  they  excuse  them- 
selves for  a  refusal  to  listen  to  the  inner 
voice  on  the  ground,  "  What  I  have  done 
is  as  nearly  right  as  was  necessary."  These 
moral  compromises  form  the  cogs  in  the 
machinery  which  connect  good  men  with 
worse,  and  it  is  astonishing  to  find  how 
simple  is  the  machinery  and  how  few  links 
are  needed  to  reach  from  the  honest  busi- 
ness man  to  the  dishonest  promoter,  from 
the  high-minded  public  officer  to  the  polit- 
ical grafter.  Into  this  atmosphere  of  com- 
promises, of  shiftiness,  of  uncertainty,  the 
voice  of  science  comes  with  the  word, 
"Nothing  is  worth  while  but  the  truth; 
make  no  compromises  with  yourself,  ac- 
cept no  half-truth ;  do  not  delude  yourself 
into  thinking  you  are  acting  from  one 
motive  when  you  are  really  prompted  by 
another;  do  not  lie  to  yourself;  if  you 
are  not  strong  enough  to  be  righteous,  at 
least  be  intellectually  sincere."  If,  among 
the  distractions  of  our  lives,  we  are  to  give 
91 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   PRAYER 

any  opportunity  to  the  inner  spirit  to  be 
heard,  this  invariable,  uncompromising 
attitude  to  truth  is  an  essential. 

In  bringing  this  message  to  the  individ- 
ual soul  the  science  of  our  day  is  sound- 
ing the  highest  ethical  note  of  which  men 
are  capable;  and  he  who  disciplines  his 
conscience  to  heed  it  is  already  giving 
heed  to  the  highest  spiritual  consciousness 
into  which  it  is  his  privilege  to  enter :  he 
is  entering  already  into  communion  with 
Him  who  is  the  author  of  his  spiritual  life. 

And,  whether  communion  with  Him 
means  a  direct  communion  with  a  personal 
spirit  or  whether  it  means  a  communion 
with  our  better  selves,  it  comes  in  either 
case  through  the  medium  of  our  personal 
spiritual  consciousness.  He  who  will  know 
Him  must  first  know  himself  must  first 
face  fearlessly  and  fairly  the  questions  of 
his  own  soul,  must  have  so  developed  his 
heart  and  mind  to  higher  things  that  he 
may  have  spiritual  consciousness,  and  a 
92 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF   PRAYER 

communion  with  the  spirit  which  is  in 
every  man.  It  is  the  knowledge  of  this 
inner  spirit  which  shall  lead  us  surely  to 
higher  spiritual  truth. 

It  seems,  therefore,  clear  to  me  that,  in 
the  sense  in  which  I  have  used  the  words, 
all  serious  men,  whatever  their  intellectual 
training,  must  pray,  not,  perhaps,  for  mate- 
rial help,  not  in  expectation  that  the  laws 
of  the  universe  shall  be  changed  at  their 
request,  not  even  primarily  for  strength 
to  live  rightly  and  justly,  but  as  the  su- 
preme effort  of  the  human  soul  to  know 
God.  And  whether  that  which  we  call 
prayer  be  a  direct  communion  with  Him 
as  our  Heavenly  Father,  or  whether  it  be  a 
communion  with  our  higher  consciousness 
which  is  in  touch  with  Him,  in  either  case 
the  time  can  never  come  when  a  human 
soul  will  not  rise  from  such  communion 
purified  and  strengthened,  with  new  hope 
and  new  patience,  and  with  a  more  serene 
view  of  his  own  duty  and  his  own  future. 
93 


OUGHT  A  RELIGIOUS  MAN 
TO  JOIN  A  CHURCH? 


OUGHT  A   RELIGIOUS   MAN 
TO   JOIN   A   CHURCH? 

"  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all."  —  St.  Paul. 

The  history  of  the  Christian  Church  and 
of  the  process  by  which  it  has  come  in  our 
day  to  be  represented  by  almost  countless 
sects  holding  widely  varying  religious  be- 
liefs is  a  part  of  the  story  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  our  race.  Starting  with  a  small 
group  of  devoted  and  religious  men  who 
represented  no  compact  administration, 
the  church  gradually  assumed  a  complex 
organization.  With  the  conversion  of  Con- 
stantine  in  the  fourth  century  Christianity 
became  the  accepted  religion  of  the  most 
powerful  nation  in  the  world.  Gradually 
the  Christian  Church  drew  into  its  fingers 
the  reins  of  civil  government,  and  its 
97 


OUGHT   A   RELIGIOUS    MAN 

organization  changed  character  to  enable 
it  to  deal  with  these  new  powers.  For  a 
thousand  years  it  ruled  the  civilized  world. 
Finally  came  a  reaction.  Men  came  back 
to  the  idea  of  earlier  Christianity  that  it 
was  the  business  of  the  church  to  concern 
itself  with  religion,  not  with  civil  rule. 
Out  of  the  conflict  which  this  reaction 
brought  were  born  other  forms  of  religious 
organization  antagonistic  to  the  power 
and  influence  of  the  mother  church.  This 
differentiation  into  sects  has  gone  on  until 
to-day  the  Christian  Church  is  represented 
in  the  world  by  so  many  sects  that  it 
would  be  difficult  to  name  them.  They 
vary  in  creed  from  a  strict  and  formal  ad- 
herence to  the  authority  of  the  church  and 
its  dogma  to  an  association  of  men  and 
women  bound  by  no  formal  creed  and 
associated  with  the  purpose  of  the  advance- 
ment of  religion  by  their  common  efforts. 
In  its  most  highly  organized  branches  the 
Christian  Church  to-day  still  claims  the 
98 


TO   JOIN   A   CHURCH? 

right  to  rule  and  govern  the  world.  In  its 
youngest  and  most  liberal  divisions  it  does 
not  even  ask  the  acceptance  of  a  creed. 
From  amongst  all  these  churches  one  may 
perhaps  find  none  which  agrees  wholly 
with  his  own  views,  but  he  may  certainly 
find  one  which  approximates  to  them,  and 
withal  a  very  large  liberty  of  belief  and  of 
action.  A  religious  man  —  one  who  be- 
lieves that  religion  is  a  life,  not  a  profes- 
sion, one  who  seeks  to  nourish  in  his  own 
heart  the  things  that  make  for  truth  and 
justice  and  mercy  —  such  a  one  will  nat- 
urally be  concerned  as  to  whether  he 
ought  to  become  a  member  of  one  of 
these  organizations.  Will  his  spiritual  life 
be  quickened  thereby*?  Will  it  afford 
him  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  energy 
of  the  soul  will  be  developed  along  true 
lines?  Will  it  help  to  bring  his  life  in 
touch  with  the  religious  life  of  other  men 
so  that  both  they  and  he  may  be  helped  ? 
Is  it  his  duty  to  join  a  church  ? 
99 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 

It  is  evident  to  any  student  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  church,  or  to  any  observer  of 
the  organizations  which  exist  among  us  to- 
day calling  themselves  churches,  that  they 
have  the  advantages  and  the  weaknesses 
of  other  human  organizations.  Much  of 
what  the  churches  do  commends  religion 
to  men ;  a  large  part  of  that  which  they 
do  has  but  little  effect  either  for  or  against 
religion ;  and  a  considerable  part  of  what 
the  churches  do  unfortunately  discredits 
religion. 

If  religion  is  a  life,  it  is  a  life  springing 
up  in  the  individual  soul.  It  belongs  es- 
sentially and  primarily  to  the  individual. 
There  is  perhaps  no  other  form  of  human 
development  which  lends  itself  less  easily 
to  the  purposes  and  the  machinery  of  an 
organization  than  that  divine  life  in  the 
individual  human  soul  which  we  call  reli- 
gion. This  life  in  the  soul  and  its  develop- 
ment is  essentially  individualistic.  It  may 
be  quickened  or  refreshed  or  repressed  by 
ioo 


TO   JOIN   A    CHURCH? 

the  contact  with  other  individuals,  but  it 
does  not  lend  itself  to  organization;    it 
cannot   be   promoted   by   administration. 
And  this  has  always  been  one  of  the  weak- 
nesses and  the  dangers  of  religious  organi- 
zations :    that  the  machinery  of  organiza- 
tions, once  provided,  has  in  nearly  all  cases 
been  turned  to  the  advancement  of  some- 
thing other  than  religion.    It  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  use  the  power  of  an  organization 
so  as  to  develop  in  the  hearts  of  the  indi- 
viduals comprising  it  mercy  and  love  and 
reverence ;  but  it  is  very  easy  to  put  the 
organization    back    of   a    dogma    which 
touches  the  imagination  or  the  interest  of 
those  concerned.    From  the  very  nature 
of  religion  and  from  the  qualities  inherent 
in  human  nature  the  organization  called 
the  church  has  lent  itself  far  more  easily 
to  dogma  than  to  love,  far  more  readily 
to  theology  than  to  religion,  far  more  suc- 
cessfully to  the  upbuilding  of  the  power 
of  the  organization  than  to  the  advance- 


101 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 

ment  of  truth.  Individual  religious  life 
was  what  Jesus  sought  to  kindle.  He 
originated  no  organization;  though  he 
criticised  the  church  of  his  day,  he  never 
left  it.  His  mission  was  to  lead  men  to 
God  so  that  they  might  lead  their  own 
life  with  Him.  It  was  inevitable,  perhaps, 
that  amongst  his  followers  should  be  de- 
veloped in  course  of  time  a  compact,  effec- 
tive organization.  But  this  organization 
could  not  take  the  place  of  the  spiritual 
leadership  of  a  truly  religious  soul,  and  it 
lent  itself  only  too  well  to  human  ambi- 
tion and  human  vanity.  To  wrest  from  its 
hands  the  power  of  civil  government  took 
centuries  of  strife  and  cost  countless  lives. 
This  battle  has  been  fought  and  settled  in 
most  civilized  countries.  Where  the  ques- 
tion still  survives  it  marks  the  recrudes- 
cence of  a  mediaeval  conflict  in  the  minds 
of  men :  a  conflict  which  will  in  the  end 
terminate  only  in  one  way.  To-day,  to 
the  great  benefit  of  both  the  state  and  the 


102 


TO   JOIN   A   CHURCH? 

church,  our  two  most  complex  human 
organizations,  the  latter  no  longer  claims 
the  right  to  interfere  in  civil  government. 
To-day  no  man  will  think  of  the  church, 
at  least  in  our  United  States  of  America, 
except  in  its  religious  purpose. 

That  the  church  is  not  indispensable  to 
the  perpetuation  and  progress  of  religion 
seems  clear.  Its  inefficiency  as  a  religious 
agency  is  the  most  evident  part  of  its  his- 
tory. It  does  not  seem  impossible  that 
religion  among  men  may  some  day  be 
so  developed  that  the  church  as  a  formal 
organization  may  be  transformed ;  it  may 
come  to  occupy  toward  theology  some 
such  attitude  as  the  Chemical  Society  oc- 
cupies toward  chemistry,  or  some  other 
agency  may  take  its  place. 

Yet  the  imperfections  and  limitations 
to  which  I  have  alluded  make  no  an- 
swer to  the  questions  which  I  have  asked. 
The  fact  that  the  church  has  been  in  many 
respects  cleared  of  the  superstitions  of  a 
103 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 

thousand  years,  that  it  no  longer  claims,  in 
many  of  its  branches  at  least,  the  obedience 
of  an  absolute  authority,  that  it  admits  mis- 
takes and  weaknesses,  is  an  evidence  of 
increasing  sincerity  and  of  a  higher  fitness. 
Furthermore,  when  the  man  of  scientific 
training  considers  the  organization  of  the 
church  as  it  stands  to-day,  he  will,  if  he  fol- 
low the  scientific  method,  be  less  interested 
in  the  historical  consistency  of  the  claims 
of  the  church  than  he  will  in  that  which 
the  church  at  present  represents.  For  ex- 
ample :  it  would  be  a  difficult  matter  to 
trace  a  logical  connection  between  the  sim- 
ple teaching  of  Jesus  and  the  claims  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff  to  temporal  sovereignty 
over  certain  sections  of  Italy.  Such  an  in- 
quiry is  interesting  and  of  value  ;  but  it  is 
in  a  certain  sense  academic,  and  ought  not 
for  a  moment  to  blind  the  eyes  of  an  intel- 
ligent man  to  the  fact  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  to-day  one  of  the  great 
organized  moral  forces  which  make  for  law 
104 


TO   JOIN   A    CHURCH? 

and  order  and  righteousness.  One  cannot 
disregard,  if  he  would,  the  place  which  the 
church  has  come  to  play  in  our  larger  social 
and  political  life.  And  this  is  a  considera- 
tion which  very  young  men  are  inclined  to 
place  in  altogether  too  small  a  perspective. 
Few  of  us  are  commissioned  to  reorganize 
society,  or  to  recast  its  social,  religious,  or 
political  divisions.  For  most  men  the  great- 
est usefulness  lies,  as  does  the  greatest 
happiness,  in  doing  their  work  in  the  world 
in  harmony  with  the  organizations  which 
society  has  slowly  adopted,  and  in  sup- 
porting through  these  such  reforms  as 
commend  themselves  to  their  judgment. 

That  which  we  call  Christianity  to-day 
means  different  things  in  its  organized 
form  in  different  countries.  It  no  longer 
means,  and  has  never  meant  since  the 
church  became  an  organization,  a  true  re- 
flection of  the  simple  life  and  high  spiritual 
ideals  of  its  founder.  Christianity,  even  in 
its  organized  form,  is  no  longer  a  creed, 
105 


OUGHT   A   RELIGIOUS    MAN 

but  the  visible  expression  of  the  gradually 
growing,  gradually  advancing  conscience 
of  the  race;  and  as  such  it  is  the  product 
of  the  labor  of  religious  men  both  in  and 
out  of  the  church.  Darwin  and  Spencer 
and  Tyndall  have  helped  to  mould  the 
church  of  to-day  no  less  truly  than  Luther 
and  Zwingle  and  Wesley.  It  is  true  that 
the  expression  of  the  spiritual  ideals  of  an 
age  through  an  organization  will  always 
fall  short  of  those  ideals  in  the  thoughts 
of  the  great  leaders.  This  inertia  is  charac- 
teristic of  all  organizations  and  need  cause 
no  surprise  or  resentment.  Organizations 
never  lead,  men  lead.  Religious  organiza- 
tions will  always  be  slower  than  religious 
leaders  in  their  appreciation  of  truth,  but 
this  does  not  in  the  least  detract  from  the 
fact  that  such  organizations  offer  to  us  men, 
with  our  complex  human  nature,  the  way 
to  a  better  fellowship  and  a  deeper  inspira- 
tion. 

There  is  one  impression  which  is  wide- 
106 


TO   JOIN    A    CHURCH? 

spread  among  young  men,  and  especially 
among  those  who  have  been  brought  up 
in  Protestant  homes,  which  has  seemed  to 
me  to  work  great  harm  in  dealing  with 
this  matter.  That  is  the  impression  that 
by  remaining  outside  of  formal  church 
connection  a  man  in  some  way  escapes  a 
certain  religious  and  moral  responsibility 
which  he  incurs  as  a  member  of  a  church. 
Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 
All  men  are  religious  men  in  the  sense  that 
the  divine  energy  flows  into  all  their  hearts. 
All  men  are  under  the  same  obligation  to 
turn  this  energy  to  the  ends  for  which  it  is 
meant :  that  is,  to  the  growth  in  their  hearts 
of  love  and  truth  and  mercy.  All  human 
beings  are  members  of  that  invisible  church 
which  is  sustained  by  Him  in  whom  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  In 
other  words,  all  men  are  under  the  same 
obligation  to  be  religious.  To  excuse  one's 
self  for  doing  certain  things  because  one 
is  not  a  member  of  a  church  is  the  veriest 
107 


OUGHT    A   RELIGIOUS    MAN 

hypocrisy.  The  obligation  to  be  chaste, 
fair-minded,  unselfish,  generous,  reverent, 
helpful,  is  just  the  same  for  each  one  of 
you  whether  you  belong  to  a  formal  reli- 
gious organization  or  not.  Do  not  hide  be- 
hind any  such  weak  lie  as  to  suppose  you 
absolve  yourself  from  your  obligations  or 
your  relations  to  the  infinite  Maker  of  the 
universe,  or  that  you  can  escape  the  inev- 
itable working  of  His  laws  by  declining  to 
join  an  organization  which  your  fellow-men 
have  set  up  for  the  study  and  development 
of  these  relations.  The  obligations  and  the 
opportunities  of  the  religious  life  are  upon 
you  by  the  very  fact  of  your  existence. 
By  joining  a  church  you  neither  increase 
nor  diminish  these  obligations;  but  you 
may  affect  profoundly  thereby  your  ability 
to  respond  to  the  obligations,  to  improve 
the  opportunities  and  to  appreciate  the  joys. 
There  is,  too,  one  side  of  religion  to 
which  the  church  organization  ministers 
which  the  scientific  man  is  inclined  to  over- 
108 


TO   JOIN   A    CHURCH? 

look,  or  at  least  to  rate  below  its  true 
value,  and  that  is  the  church's  ministry  to 
our  emotional  nature.  However  highly  we 
may  value  reason,  however  indispensable 
it  may  be  in  our  guidance  through  the 
world,  it  is  after  all  only  a  part  of  our  being. 
The  best  things  of  our  civilization,  religion, 
literature,  art,  even  philosophy,  spring  not 
alone  from  our  reason,  but  rise  in  large 
measure  from  that  deep  undercurrent  of 
our  being  in  whose  sweep  is  carried  along 
our  loves  and  our  hates,  our  hopes  and  our 
fears,  our  aspirations  and  our  longings. 
There  are  tender  memories  and  associations 
which  cling  about  the  offices  and  service 
of  the  church  and  minister  to  the  best  that 
is  in  us.  The  familiar  text,  the  old  hymn, 
the  noble  words  of  Jesus  carry  with  them 
memories  and  longings  which  are  tender 
and  true.  These  emotions  are  not  religion, 
and  we  go  far  astray  when  we  mistake 
them  for  it ;  but  none  the  less  they  form 
a  real  and  true  part  of  religion,  and  their 
109 


OUGHT   A   RELIGIOUS    MAN 

drawings  are  toward  those  things  which 
make  for  the  divine  life.  This  is  the  im- 
mortal office  of  the  Christian  Church,  that 
it  hands  on  these  traditions,  these  hopes, 
these  aspirations,  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. To  lose  this  fellowship  is  to  lose 
much. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are,  I  appre- 
hend, few  men  of  scientific  training  who 
can  subscribe  sincerely  to  belief  in  the 
creed  or  in  the  articles  of  faith  of  what 
are  called  the  orthodox  Christian  churches. 
Even  the  fact  that  this  profession  of  faith 
is  becoming  in  the  church  itself  less  im- 
portant, that  it  is  in  fact  practically  ig- 
nored by  a  large  proportion  of  the  clergy 
and  laity,  does  not  make  the  matter  of 
membership  in  the  church  easier  to  such 
men.  All  their  training  in  science  is  against 
that  attitude  of  mind  which  permits  a  man 
or  an  organization  to  hold  on  to  a  creed  or 
to  a  formula  in  which  they  no  longer  be- 
lieve. The  impression  it  makes  upon  their 
no 


TO  JOIN   A   CHURCH? 

minds  is  very  much  as  if  the  astronomer 
should  try  to  fit  the  modern  observations 
to  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy.  Such  a  posi- 
tion is  directly  in  contravention  of  that  in- 
tellectual sincerity  which  is  the  basis  of  all 
true  scientific  progress.  To  scientific  men, 
by  the  very  nature  of  their  education,  belief 
must  go  hand  in  hand  with  reason  and 
right  thinking  if  belief  is  to  be  respected. 
For  this  reason  they  find  it  clearly  impos- 
sible to  join  a  church  if  that  act  requires 
the  profession  of  a  creed  in  which  they  do 
not  believe.  Nor  do  they  feel  sufficiently 
skilled  in  metaphysics  to  decide  how  far 
the  different  churches  may  go  in  the  nom- 
inal support  of  a  creed  in  which  they  do 
not  fully  believe.  The  whole  idea  of  a 
creed  as  a  test  of  religious  fellowship  seems 
to  them  indefensible  and  artificial.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  science  of  religion  —  and  for 
them  it  seems  generally  a  false  science  — 
not  a  part  of  religion  itself. 

And  yet,  as  one  recalls  his  own  life  he 
in 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 

realizes  that  what  the  church  has  brought 
to  the  world  has  been  largely  independent 
of  and  apart  from  these  personal  tests.  As 
one  looks  back  on  the  associations  of  his 
life,  as  he  reads  the  noble  words  of  the 
church  service  and  of  the  church  prayers, 
he  finds  that  his  heart  stirs  with  the  mem- 
ory. There  are  few  words  in  our  language 
so  closely  interwoven  with  the  best  human 
aspirations,  with  the  sincerest  spiritual  out- 
goings, as  those  services  of  the  church 
which  we  associate  with  the  solemn  acts 
of  life.  What  other  words  have  brought 
comfort  to  so  many  hearts  as  the  triumph- 
ant passages  of  the  service  for  the  dead  ? 
How  it  binds  all  men  together  to  believe 
in  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  hope.  Shall 
the  man  of  science  deny  himself  and  his 
children  the  joy  and  the  comfort  of  this 
fellowship  because  he  cannot  subscribe  to 
the  creed  which  the  church  prescribes,  a 
creed  which  as  time  goes  on  sits  more 
and  more  lightly  on  the  consciences  of  the 
112 


TO    JOIN    A    CHURCH? 

leaders  of  the  church  *?  It  is  this  question 
which  the  religious  man  of  scientific  train- 
ing and  habits  of  thought  finds  it  difficult 
to  answer,  and  the  nature  of  the  answer  will 
depend  not  alone  on  the  intelligence  and 
intellectual  honesty  of  the  man,  but  also 
on  his  general  philosophy  of  life  and  the 
part  which  his  emotions  play  in  that  life. 
Here  is  Louis  Pasteur's  answer:  — 

"  There  are  two  men  in  each  one  of  us : 
the  scientist,  he  who  starts  with  a  clear 
field  and  desires  to  rise  to  the  knowledge 
of  nature  through  observation,  experimen- 
tation, and  reasoning,  and  the  man  of  sen- 
timent, the  man  of  belief,  the  man  who 
mourns  his  dead  children  and  who  cannot, 
alas,  prove  that  he  will  see  them  again, 
but  who  hopes  that  he  will,  and  lives  in 
that  hope,  the  man  who  will  not  die  like 
a  vibrio,  but  who  feels  that  the  force  that 
is  within  him  cannot  die.  The  two  do- 
mains are  distinct,  and  woe  to  him  who 
tries  to  let  them  trespass  on  each  other  in 
"3 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 

the  so  imperfect  state  of  human  know- 
ledge." Science,  he  said,  should  not  con- 
cern itself  with  the  philosophical  conse- 
quences of  its  discoveries.  He  calmly  went 
his  way  in  the  full  liberty  of  science,  and 
yet  living  and  dying  in  the  comfort  of 
that  faith  which  he  had  learned  in  boy- 
hood, and  without  those  conflicts  of  the 
soul  through  which  so  many  of  his  scien- 
tific brethren  had  to  go. 

A  very  different  attitude  was  that  of 
Thomas  Huxley.  To  a  mind  of  his  quality 
there  could  be  no  such  separation  between 
the  thinking  of  a  man  as  a  scientist  and  as 
a  religious  man.  The  assumptions  involved 
in  the  dogmas  of  the  church  aroused  not 
only  his  suspicions  but  all  his  anger  at 
what  seemed  to  him  intellectual  dishon- 
esty. "I  will,"  said  he,  "be  satisfied  with 
no  half  truth,  I  will  believe  no  lie."  And 
he  went  out  to  fight  what  he  believed  to 
be  the  falsehoods  of  religious  creeds  with 
as  dauntless  a  spirit  as  ever  sent  crusader 
114 


TO   JOIN   A    CHURCH? 

against  a  Moslem  lance.  For  him  to  have 
accepted  Pasteur's  attitude  would  have 
been  treason  to  the  best  that  was  in  him. 
He  died,  as  he  had  lived,  outside  a  formal 
church  organization,  although  he  always 
gladly  sought  for  his  family  and  his  chil- 
dren the  associations  which  the  church 
offered. 

The  examples  of  these  two  men  are 
worth  our  study,  for  both  were  great  souls, 
both  thought  deeply  concerning  the  prob- 
lems of  the  universe.  Each  answered  the 
question  of  his  religious  fellowship  and 
his  religious  faith  simply,  sincerely,  de- 
voutly. Both  were,  to  my  thinking,  reli- 
gious men. 

And  this  brings  me  back  to  the  word 
which  I  said  at  the  beginning.  Each  man 
must  answer  in  his  own  way  the  question 
of  his  religious  fellowship.  Faith  is  itself 
a  great  spiritual  experience.  To  believe 
truly  and  sincerely  in  a  man,  in  a  princi- 
ple, in  God,  is  alone  a  great  inspiration. 
"5 


OUGHT   A    RELIGIOUS    MAN 
If  you  find  in  your  religious  faith  that 
which  brings  you  comfort  and  help  and 
serenity  of  life,  rejoice  in  it,  whether  you 
find  it  in  one  church  or  another,  whether 
you  be  Protestant  or  Catholic,  Episcopalian 
or  Unitarian,  Baptist  or  Christian  Scientist. 
If  you  find  your  religious  life  quickened 
by  association  with  some  body  of  profess- 
ing Christians,  do  not  let  any  formal  creed 
stand  in  the  way  of  your  fellowship  with 
them.    There  are  few  men  whose  spiritual 
senses  will  not  be  quickened,  whose  aspi- 
rations will  not  be  raised,  whose  religious 
ideals  will  not  be  ripened  by  the  fellow- 
ship with  his  brethren  which  the  Christian 
Church  offers.    There  are  few  men  who  are 
not  the  better  for  a  connection  with  the 
church  and  for  service  in  it.    But  in  as- 
suming such  connection  do  not  imagine 
that  such  membership  constitutes  religion ; 
make  it  clear  to  yourself  why  you  seek 
and  remain  in  such  a  relation,  and  be  sure 
that  it  means  a  gain  in  your  religious  life. 
116 


TO   JOIN    A    CHURCH  ? 

And  be  sure  of  one  thing  more :  no  man 
is  going  to  gain  in  his  spiritual  life  by  ig- 
noring the  great  problems  of  the  universe 
which  lie  before  him,  or  by  professing  to 
believe  that  thing  which  in  his  own  soul 
he  doubts.  There  are  many  paths  by 
which  a  human  soul  comes  to  a  high  reli- 
gious life.  Some  of  them  lead  through 
suffering,  through  service,  through  faith, 
through  doubt,  through  patience ;  but 
there  is  none  that  leads  through  insincerity 
and  cowardice. 


117 


(€be  fiibersibe  press 

Electrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  dr>  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


Date  Due 


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